Religion and religiosity in the contemporary world

Question 1

Secularisation thesis - statistics to support

Answer 1

• 5% of people go to church in the UK
• 2021census, for the first time ever, less than half the population describe themselves as Christian.
• Priest shortages.

Question 2

Wilson - secularisation

Answer 2

• Defines secularisation as the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance.

Question 3

Beliefs

Answer 3

• How many people say they believe in God
• Social attitudes

Question 4

Practices

Answer 4

• Do you practise religious festivals
• Do you go to church

Question 5

Institutions

Answer 5

• How many people go to Catholic schools
• Religion no longer influences laws.

Question 6

Evidence of secularisation:

Answer 6

• 1960s = 10-15% attended church
• 2015 = 5%
• 1971 = 3/5 weddings in a church
• 2015 = 1/3 weddings are religious
• Rise in bogus baptisms = baptising to get into schools.

Question 7

Evidence of decline in the influence of religious institutions:

Answer 7

• Many schools do not practise an act of collective worship everyday.
• In 2004, 76% of schools did not do collective daily worship - OFSTED

Question 8

Lepski

Answer 8

• Defines religiosity as religious behaviours, including religious thinking and practices.

Question 9

How we operationalise religiosity effects the answers we get:

Answer 9

“What is your religion?” - 59% of Britons are Christian, 5% Muslim, 25% no religion.
“Are you religious?” - 53% of Britons have no religion.

Question 10

Three problems with measuring secularisation are:

Answer 10

• Practical
• Ethical
• Theoretical

Question 11

Was there ever a golden age of faith?

Answer 11

• A time when everyone believed in God + attended church regularly.
• In 1851 - 40% attended church.
• Could suggest religiosity is low, not declining.

Question 12

Martin

Answer 12

• In Victorian Britain, church attendance was required for M/C respectability.

Question 12

Three important themes of why secularisation is occuring:

Answer 12

• Modernisation
• Social change
• Social and religious diversity

Question 13

Weber ‘the disenchantment of the world’

Answer 13

• Weber argues that Western society has undergone a process of rationalisation.
• Rationalisation refers to the process by which rational and scientific thinking replaces magico-religious thinking.
• Begins with the protestant reformation in the 16th century.
• Protestants like to use some science, accidentally led to secularisation through the disenchantment of the world.

Question 13

Bruce ‘technological worldview’

Answer 13

• Says mostly the same thing as Weber.
• Use technology to look for other explanations of things, led to secularisation.

Question 14

Parsons

Answer 14

• Privatisation of religion - it is more private to the individual - has led to disengagement, the church losing influence.
• E.g. in the past schools and hospitals had nuns and monks.

Question 15

Wilson and Bruce - social and cultural diversity has led to a decline of religion

Answer 15

• Decline of community = pre-industrial society, people worshipped together. Now community is declining + so is religion.
• Industrialisation = Bruce is argues industrialisation broke up small close-knit communities.
• Diversity of lifestyles = in a simple community people share similar values, but in a complex society people have different values.

Question 16

Aldridge

Answer 16

Some religious communities,like the Black pentecostal movement in London, flourish in anonymous, impersonal cities.

Question 17

Berger (1969)

Answer 17

• In the past, Christianity was much easier to believe in as everyone was Christian (sacred canopy)
• Now, we have religious diversity - everyone believes their religion is true.
• They can’t all be true, Berger calls it a weakening of the plausability structure.
  Criticism = Berger (1999) now having a choice of religion, people can choose one that best suits them.

Question 18

Davie

Answer 18

Belonging without believing. Belong to a church community but not really religious - true in the USA.

Question 19

Wilson

Answer 19

• Going to church is an expression of the American way of life.

Question 20

USA church population

Answer 20

• 40% of the population go to church each week.
• Though, when sociologists do head counts it seems more like 20%.