religion Flashcards
1
Q
secularisation
A
- Brian Wilson
- the process by which the character of knowledge becomes rooted in rational principals and religious thinking looses its significance for the operation of society
- it is more at an institutional level than at a personal level. Religion became less important in public spheres of life.
- McLeod suggests that there were three different realms - individual, public institutions and common language
2
Q
schools of thought
A
- Many French philosophes looked forward to an age of reason and rejected superstition. Voltaire saw Islam as more rational without priestly hierarchy whilst Gibbon proposed that it was less prone to superstition.
- They tended to be anticlerical not antireligious, critical of the institutions underpinning religious practice as opposed to the religious beliefs themselves. They still appreciated the power of the faith to discipline the poor and understood that tolerant values helped to ensure social stability.
- Many Marxists argued that class consciousness could replace the need for religion
- Necessity of religious tolerance - Edicts of Toleration by Austria 1781, Hamburg 1785, France 1787. Pluralism was the major new characteristic of the period.
- many believed that there was a secular substitute for religion – science. (e.g. Darwin’s work on evolution, Comte’s positivism, Marx identified religion as a symptom of social disorder.
3
Q
measuring religious change
A
- faith is often internalised and therefore it is very difficult to measure
- statistics show a decline in church attendance. In Berlin in 1862, the number of protestant communions in relation to total protestant population was 17%.
- statistics regarding church attendance continued to be significantly higher among women.
- Poor families couldn’t afford respectable clothes and they were therefore undignified and couldn’t go to church. Shortages of actual churches due to population growth made it hard for areas of poverty to sustain church and priest and working on a Sunday became a necessity.
4
Q
education in France
A
- religious teaching abolished in state schools in 1881
- priests and nuns excluded from teaching in state schools 1886
- use of religious symbols in school prohibited in 1903
- 1876 30% of teachers state primary school in religious orders but by 1906 it was less than 1%.
- in 1884 there was a ban on sating prayers during meetings of public bodies and in 1904 a ban on religious symbols in courts of law.
- France pioneered the secular baptism and the introduction of civil marriages and funerals. Victor Hugo’s funeral by secular rites 1885 highly visible example
5
Q
education in England
A
- Education Act of 1870 allowed the existence of new religious neutral schools as well as denominational schools
6
Q
education in Prussia
A
- state took over responsibility for education 1974
- there were changes to the curriculum. More vocational study at university, senior school taught more practical topics like arithmetic and grounded in day to day experiences not religious ideas.
7
Q
evidence for religious revival
A
- Increase in Christians 1800-1900 – 23% to 34.4% of world population. Large part of this outside Europe – directly or indirectly the result of massive missionary movements (also reflected revived religious energy in Europe)
- Jeffrey Cox in study of South London coined term ‘diffusive Christianity’ to describe beliefs of those who were not regular churchgoers but retained some kind of belief in Christian doctrine, continued to observe rites of passage, committed to Christian ethic
- popular religious revival in fraternities and charities, such as St Vincent de Paul societies.
8
Q
methodism as a new theology to access the increasingly disenchanted
A
- Methodism stemmed from German Pietism and stressed inner light against doctrinal authority, religion of the hear, born again conversion against mechanical observance, practical acts of charity, group bible reading, mutual improvement against church service and the importance of work ethos. England Methodist movement rose from 50,000 to 489,000 members 1791-185
- stressed importance of inward conviction not outward truth
9
Q
pilgrimage
A
- had been a costly and hazardous process, confined primarily to elites and high-ranking religious members of society.
- Transport improvements, such as the Ottoman Hajj Caravan and numerous tracts of railway made it more feasible for a large number of ordinary citizens to partake in these expeditions.
- The Trier Pilgrimage of 1844 had 500,000 pilgrims. The Mughal and Ottomans saw it as one of their first duties to accommodate pilgrimage, encouraging local governors to organise the Hajj caravans. This secured large scale traffic and new railways made it more feasible.
- Pilgrimage gave people the opportunity to visit holy places which had previously been considered inaccessible, reaffirming their faith, facilitating missionary activity and exposing people to new forms of religious expression.
- It encouraged architectural uniformity as seen by the Arabic Domed Mosque. An awareness of a wider religious community established a sense of pan- European religiosity
- Mary Lee Nolan and Sydney Nolan took part in a pilgrimage in Christian Western Europe, documenting 6150 places of pilgrimage in 16 countries. Catherine Ford.
10
Q
improvements to printing techniques
A
- Encouraged the proliferation of standardised religious doctrines.
- Over the course of the century, the bible became the single most produced book in all of Northern Europe.
- Christianity and the bible provided a common language, accessible to all classes and those at most points on the political spectrum
11
Q
better communication methods for religion
A
- It allowed religious individuals to play a more active role in political affairs, something which had previously been forbidden by the constitution of St Ignatius, in 1850, Pius IX presided over the Civilita Cattolica, signalling the start of a modern papal publicity policy and allowing the pope to communicate directly with people who may otherwise not have been able to.
- The papal journal, Osservatore Romano of 1871 achieved a special status as the authoritative voice of the church. Article 80, for example, denounced the secularisation of education in the kingdom of Piedmont.
- The press allowed for a trans-national public sphere. Irish readers of the Tablet could follow the secularising measures in the Piedmontese parliament. It helped to sustain a shared sense of predicament and encouraged more people to support the Holy See.
12
Q
imperialism and religion
A
- 100,000 European missionaries in Africa by 1900.
- Christian education conferred literacy and therefore power and economic status. it provided an avenue for social mobilit
13
Q
the corpus Chris procession
A
- Oliver Zimmer
- The German Corpus Christi procession established in 1264 by Papal decree aimed to venerate the holy sacrament by representing the liturgical enactment of transubstantiation and allowing religious belief to manifest in the public sphere.
- In the German town of Ludwifshafen, the editors of the national liberal Pfalzischer Kurier allowed the Catholic parish priest, Hofherr, to partake in local reporting
- in Augburg, the procession became more than just a religious affair, creating opportunities for urban sociability and leisure.
- people with liberal conviction, such as the Local Association of Gymnasts, reserved the day for general festivity, exercising and holding competitions accordingly, albeit in pursuit of their own ideologies.
14
Q
religion and nationalism
A
- led to the creation of imagined communities based exclusively on Christian cultural foundations.
- Religion played big role in people’s perceptions of who they were, who they were not. Eg. anti-Semitism acted as ‘cultural code’ in Imperial Germany – advocating anti-Semitism also way to advocate nationalism and strong state
- Pan-Slavism took off in Russia and was a devotion to the orthodox Christian church
- religious discrimination in Poland was also shown to energise nationalism. All four of its bordering neighbours have a unique religious system but a Jewish population had also been imposed on the country. This heightened religious differences and meant that Catholicism became part and part of polish identity.
- Many catholic voters chose liberal candidates because he supported Home Rule for Ireland.
- Many Jewish communities of Europe favoured a secular state as this would allow neutrality in the religious question.
- Secularisation was less prominent in countries where Catholics felt themselves part of a disadvantaged group or where religion became the identity of an oppressed ethnicity. The church was successful here at garnering popular support and mentalities didn’t secularise to the same extent.
- In India, religion could fragment nationalist demands as much as it could unite.
- Italian nationalism challenged princely authority of the Pope and Papal States
15
Q
religion and capitalism
A
- . In the SE of France, the silk merchants of Lyon and the Montgolfier figure of Annonay both suggest that Catholicism had adopted a capitalist orientation. workshops of the silk industry trained nuns to oversee the workshops.
- There was some basis for an alliance between Catholics and businessmen. Both groups tended to support the right and agreed on the need to moralise the lower ranks of society.
- Ideally, the employer would care for his workers and therefore labour turnover would reduce and productivity would increase. The church had a tradition of providing pastoral care – needs converged. Augustin Cochin promoted socially responsible policies among Catholic employers (e.g. a canteen supervised by the Sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul).
16
Q
increase in the practicalities of religion
A
- More women than men joined the church during this period and by 1904 French women outnumbered their male counterparts four to one (David Blackbourn)
- Women performed catholic rites more regularly and faithfully than men did. Between 1798and the early 1880s, 200,000 women in France joined religious congregations.
