Postmodern Flashcards
Religion is changing but not declining
The trend towards greater social equality in society has undermined the traditional power of the church to impose religion on people. However, while traditional religion has declined, religion itself has not disappeared. Postmodernists do not accept the view that secularisation is taking place in society. People still have beliefs that can be defined as religious, but they may not practice their beliefs or they may not practice their beliefs in a way that can be easily quantified. In the postmodern age people are more likely to follow NRM’s and NAM’s
Davie says people can have ‘belief without belonging’, where people have a religious belief but do not attend church. Davie agrees that in a postmodern world religion is changing rather than declining. People no longer feel that it is necessary to attend church to be religious as people may have a privatised notion of belief
Religion is a consumer commodity in the postmodern age
Religion in the postmodern age is now treated like any other commodity. This means that religions have to compete for consumer attention in a global marketplace. Globalisation has increased the choice of religions available and has expanded religious consciousness by introducing people to a greater range of religious ideas
Lyon says people are now spiritual shoppers, sampling religious products from a global supermarket of beliefs and practices.
people to adopt a ‘do it yourself’ or a ‘pick and mix’ approach to religious belief. E.g. Glen Hoddle the former England football manager is a ‘born again Christian’ who also believes in reincarnation and faith healing. This pick and mix approach helps people to shop around for religious beliefs that can satisfy their own interests and needs.
The traditional authority of religion has been lost in the postmodern age
radition has lost its significance as society has undergone a process of detraditionalisation. There has been a dramatic decline in traditional church attendance in Europe. happened because most parents no longer socialise their children into a religious belief. This used to be a function of the extended family, but as the status of religion has declined in society, most parents view religion as a matter of personal choice. As a result, young people no longer inherit a fixed religious identity, appeal of NRM’s
believe in ‘relativism’. People no longer accept that any one religion can claim to have an absolute monopoly of belief as now people have access to a wide range of different religious ideas and beliefs. This weakens the claim of traditional religions to have the ‘absolute trut
Religious belief is focussed on self-orientation in the postmodern age
In the postmodern age people are free to choose a religion to meet their own needs. For example, Heelas says self-improvement is a central aim of NRM’s and NAM’s and a reason why people join such organisations
New Age movements are also a good example of post modern religion in that they provide a modern application of traditional practices (yoga, meditation), that claim to offer knowledge, techniques and therapies that enable people to unlock spiritual powers within them, helping them to reduce stress and anxiety
Today, people are said to be starved of spirituality and NRM’s and NAM’s offer people the opportunity to achieve inner spirituality and to remystify their lives
Religion has become a cultural resource in the postmodern age
Lyon says religion is no longer a social institution but a cultural resource which people can use as they would any other aspect of popular culture such as cinema or theatre. As religion becomes packaged in the market place, it becomes Disneyfied, that is, trivial and crowd-pleasing
Lyon claims that using Disneyland could be seen as trivialising religion but at the same time it is making religion more accessible to the public. Lyons says Disney becomes a metaphor for the way post modernity, with its accent on image, consumption, entertainment, globalisation
Lyon says the modern media has enabled people to access religion from around the world in their own homes and adapt religious belief to meet their own needs. This results in religion becoming ‘disembedded’ in that it no longer has a real location in a church but is instead to be found in cyberspace. Consequently religion is no longer characterised by collective acts of worship
