Key Theorists - Secularisation Flashcards
Key Theorist – Wilson (1996): Defining Secularisation
WHAT DO THEY ARGUE?
- “The process of secularisation is one in which religious thinking, practices and institutions is said to be in decline”.
Key Theorist – Wilson (1996): Defining Secularisation
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH THIS WAY OF DEFINING SECULARISATION?
GIVE AT LEAST TWO EXAMPLES.
- This definition is subjective – it takes a side, and this important because people have different ways of how they interpret and practise a religion.
- There are questions about: what exactly is ‘religious thinking’? What is meant by significance? How can religion be measured? Is a belief in fate or luck a religious belief?
- Religious commitment is hard to measure as 33% of the population is important to them, but this does not always mean that 33% of the population is religious.
Key Theorist – Weber (1905): Rationalism
WHAT DO THEY ARGUE?
- Western society has undergone a process of rationalisation over the last few centuries (people now want facts and secure evidence to support their thoughts rather than just a religious belief).
Key Theorist – Weber (1905): Rationalism
HOW CAN THIS THEORY BE EVALUATED?
- It could be argued that when people nowadays face crisis such as being diagnosed with a serious illness, they may now turn to medical help to make themselves better, rather than to religion.
Key Theorist – Weber (1905): Rationalism
HOW WOULD THE IDEA THAT MEDICAL ADVANCES HAVE OVERTAKEN RELIGIOUS WAYS OF HEALING ILLNESS, LINK TO GLOBALISATION?
- Globalisation has created medical advances which can now be used to help people when they need it, rather than people having to only turn to religion for help in times of crisis.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Technological Worldview
WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?
- The growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen.
- Although scientific do not challenge religion directly, they have greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Technological Worldview
HOW CAN THIS THEORY BE EVALUATED?
- A technological worldview leaves little room for religious explanations in everyday lives, which only survive in areas in which technology is least effective.
Key Theorist – Parsons: Structural Differentiation
WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?
- That religion dominated pre-industrial society but with industrialisation it has become a smaller and more specialised institution.
- Structural differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion. Its functions are transferred to other institutions and it becomes disconnected to wider society. For example the church has lost the influence it once had on education, social welfare and the law.
How can this theory be evaluated?
- Bruce agrees that religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions. It has become more privatized - confined to the private sphere of the home and family. Religious beliefs are now largely a matter of personal choice and religious institutions have lost much of their influence on wider society. As a result, traditional rituals and symbols have lost meaning.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Diversity of Occupations, Cultures and Lifestyles
WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?
- The plausibility of beliefs is undermined by alternatives. It is also undermined by individualism because the plausibility of religion depends on the existence of a practising community of believers.
- In the absence of a practising religious community that functions on a day to day basis, both religious belief and practice decline.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Cultural Defence and Cultural Transition
WHAT DOES THIS THEORY IDENTIFY?
- Two counter-trends that seem to go against secularisation theory which are both associated with higher than average levels of religious participation.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Cultural Defence and Cultural Transition
WHAT ARE THE TWO COUNTER TRENDS IN WHICH THIS THEORY IDENTIFIES?
1) Cultural defence – where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external power such as hostile, foreign power.
2) Cultural transition – where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country or culture.
Key Theorist – Bruce: Cultural Defence and Cultural Transition
WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?
- Religion survives in such situations only because it is a focus for group identity. Therefore, these examples do not disprove secularisation, but show that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than just relating individuals to the supernatural.
Key Theorist – Wilson: Secularisation in America
WHAT DID WILSON FIND?
- 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays.
Key Theorist – Wilson: Secularisation in America
WHAT DID WILSON ARGUE?
- Churchgoing in America was more an expression of the ‘American way of life’ than deeply held religious beliefs.
- America was a secular society, not because people had abandoned the churches, but because religion there had become superficial.
