Explanations of Secularisation

Question 1

What does Weber argue?

Answer 1

society has undergone ‘disenchantment’ due to rationalisation in thinking

Question 2

How did Medieval Catholicism see god?(

Weber

Answer 2

• God as transcendent

- God did not intervene in the world and left it to laws of nature

Question 3

What has science and rationality done to religious beliefs?

Weber

Answer 3

• No religious belief was needed of the world

Question 4

How has the Protestant Reformation begun the disenchantment of this world?
Weber

Answer 4

• removes magical and religious ways of thinking and starts the rationalisation mode of thinking
• this allows science to be the basis of technology that give humans more power to control nature

Question 5

What does `Bruce argue?

Answer 5

the growth of technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen

Question 6

When do we use religion if science is ineffective? Bruce

Answer 6

e.g. if someone is dying from an illness for which science has no cure

Question 7

What is structural differentiation according to Parsons?

Answer 7

• process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society

Question 8

How does structural differentiation lead to disengagement of religion according to Parsons?

Answer 8

• its functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society

Question 9

How has privatisation led to a decline in religion according to Bruce?

Answer 9

religion has become confined to the sphere of the home and family and it is now a personal choice and as a result religion has lost its traditional rituals

Question 10

How does the decline of community result in the decline in religion ?
(wilson)

Answer 10

• In pre-industrial communities, shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals which integrated individuals and regulated their behaviours
• however industrialisation occurred and this was lost

Question 11

How has industrialisation resulted in the decline of religion?

Answer 11

• small close knit communities became large loose communities with diverse culture and religion
• made social mobility more possible which brings people from all different backgrounds and creating more diversity

Question 12

How has diversity of religion undermined religions?

Answer 12

• people cannot avoid knowing that others hold different religious beliefs
• this leads to beliefs undermined by alternative religions

Question 13

How has Aldridge criticised the view of decline in community ?

Answer 13

• religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale e.g. muslims, hindu, jews
• some religious communities are imagined communities that communicate globally through social media

Question 14

What does Berger argue?

Answer 14

• a crisis of credibility is caused when there is more than one interpretation of faith

Question 15

What does Berger argue the crisis of credibility lead to?

Answer 15

• when there are alternatives versions of the truth to choose between, people will question all of them which erodes absolute certainties of religion
• religious beliefs become a personal point of view and ppl may not believe in religion at all

Question 16

How was religion in the Middle Ages?

Answer 16

• Catholic Church held an absolute monopoly
• no competition
• as a result, everyone lived under a single sacred canopy ( set of beliefs shared by all)

Question 17

What does a sacred canopy give religious beliefs?

Answer 17

• gives beliefs greater plausibility because they had no challengers and the church went unquestioned

Question 18

What was the Protestant Reformation?

Answer 18

• when Protestant churches and sect broke away from the Catholic Church which created different versions of the truth

Question 19

How does religious diversity create plurality of life worlds?

Answer 19

where people’s perception of the world vary and where there are different interpretations of the truth

Question 20

What does Bruce identify that show higher levels of religious participation?

Answer 20

• Cultural Defence

- Cultural Transition

Question 21

What is Cultural Defence ?

Answer 21

• where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against as an external force

Question 22

What is Cultural Transition?

Answer 22

• is where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups