Measuring secularisation Flashcards
Secularisation is a difficult concept to measure
To operationalise the definition of secularisation the sociologist must find a way to measure ideas such as “religious practice”, “religious belief” and “religious decline”.
Religious beliefs are usually measured by asking people about their beliefs in a questionnaire and there are few ways of objectively verifying the subjective responses to such questions. For example, when people were asked to state their religion in the 2011 census questionnaire, they were being asked a complex question, but they were only given space for a one- or two-word answer. This made it impossible for people to express the meaning of their belief in this closed questionnaire.
Moreover, religious belief does not always lead to religious practice. For example, it can be argued that the 59% of the population who said they were Christian in the 2011 census were by no means all churchgoers.
Furthermore, any measurement of secularisation involves some form of historical comparison between levels of religious practice in the past and levels of religious activity today. As accurate records of religious practice in the past are difficult to obtain, this makes it difficult to have an accurate measurement of secularisation in society.
Measurements of religious practice have a Christian bias
As Christian practice is centred on church attendance and the rites of passage, any decline in these activities is seen as evidence of secularisation.
However, it is possible to be religious without adhering to this definition of an active Christian. NRM’s tend to have a more privatised idea of religious practice and emphasise the idea of “God in here”, that is, people are spiritual beings who need help and instruction to release their inner spirituality, rather than “God out there” ,that is, “God” seen as a supernatural being who exists outside of the individual, of the older religions.
NRM’s tend to involve the individual with a much-reduced practical commitment than religions such as the Catholic Church or C of E and so they cannot be measured in the same way. This is supported by Grace Davie’s point that in today’s society many people have ‘belief without belonging,’ as they have a ‘privatised’ belief that makes belief difficult to quantify.
