Religion, renewal and choice Flashcards

1
Q

Why might religion be changing instead of declining?
Who argued the concept of ‘believing without belonging’?
Why do people no longer go to church?
What is ‘believing without belonging’? ‘Vicarious religion’?

A

-Some sociologists reject secularisation theory and argue religion is chaging- as a result of trends in late modern society, such as greater individualism, choice and consumerism.
-Grace Davie
-People no longer go to choice as they may not feel the need, attendance is now a matter of personal choice not obligation.(Baptism used to be an obligation).
-‘Believing without belonging’ people hold religious beliefs but don’t go church. Thus, the decline of traditional religion is matched by the growth of a new form of religion.
-Vicarious religion, is where a small minority practise religion on behalf of a much larger number of people.

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2
Q

What does Davie mean by ‘Spiritual health service’?
What does Davie reject about the assumption of secularisation theory in relation to modernisation? What does he argue instead?(What are modern societies i.e. Britain and America accompanied with)?
Why is Davie criticised? (British Social Attitudes surverys)

A

-In societies like Britain, despite low attendance, many people still use the churches for rites of passage- baptisms, weddings and funerals. They are a ‘spiritual health service’ available for everyone to use when they need it.
-Davie rejects secularisation theory’s assumption that modernisation affects every society in the same way.
-Instead there are multiple modernities; e.g. Britain and America are both modern societies, but with very different patterns of religion- high church attendance in America, low in Britain but accompanied by ‘believing and belonging.

-The British Social Attitudes surveys from 1983-2000 show that both church attendance and belief in God are declining. If Davie were right, we would expect to see higher levels of belief.

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3
Q

Why do Voas and Crockett criticise Davie’s believing without belonging? Bruce?

A

-Voas and Crockett do not accept Davie’s claim that there is more believing than belonging. Evidence from 5,750 respondents shows that both church attendance and belief in God are declining together. If Davie were right, we would expect to see higher levels of belief.
-Bruce adds that if people are not willing to invest time in going to church, this just reflects the declining strength of their beliefs. When people no longer believe, they no longer wish to belong, and so their involvement in religion diminishes.

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4
Q

Who formed the concept of spiritual shopping?
What argument does this reinforce?
What is meant by cultural amnesia?
How has greater social quality added to a decline in religiosity?
How does religion continue despite the decline of traditional religious institutions? (spiritual shoppers?)
What has religion now become?
What new religious types has Hervieu-Leger identified? Detail these.
Whose views can this be related to ?

A

-Hervieu-Leger
-Reinforces Davie’s argument of personal choice and believing without belonging.
-Cultural amnesia- a loss of collective memory. People have lost the religion that used to be handed down from generation to generation through family and church.
-Greater equality has undermined the traditional Church’s power to impose religion from above, so young people no longer inherit a fixed religious identity.
-However, while traditional religion has declined, religion continues through individual consumerism. People have become ‘spiritual shoppers’.
-Religion is now individualised- we now develop our own ‘do-it-yourself’.
-Two new religious types ;
Pilgrims and converts.
-Pilgrims follow an individual path in a search for self-discovery, e.g. New Age or through individual therapy.
-Converts join religious groups that offer a strong sense of belonging. This re-creates a sense of community, e.g. evangelical movements and ethnic minority churches.
-These views can be related to late modernity the idea that in recent times some trends found in modern society have begun to accelerate, e.g. the decline of tradition and increasing individualism.

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5
Q

What does Bruce argue consumerist religion is?

A

-Bruce argues that this consumerist religion is weak religion- it has little effect on the lives of its adherents. As such, he sees its rise as evidence of secularisation, no of the continuing vitality of religion.

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6
Q

What several features has Lyon identified in postmodern society that is changing the nature of religion?
What is the relocation of religion?
How does media add to this?
Why are these ideas ‘disembedded’?
How has religion become deinstitutionalised?

A

-Lyon argues that the nature of religion is changing due to globalisation, the increased importance of media and consumerism. As a result, traditional religion is giving way to new religious forms and these demonstrate its continuing strength.
-The relocation of religion; As a result of globalisation, there is increased movement of religious ideas across the national boudaries, often via online religion.
-The media now saturate us with images and messages from around the globe, giving us instant access to the ideas and beliefs to previously remote religions.
-These ideas are disembedded’ as the media lift them out of their local contexts and move them to different places and time; e.g. televangism relocates religion to the internet and TV, allowing believers to express their faith without attending church.
-Religion becomes de-institutionalised- its sign and images become detached from their place in religious institutions, floating and multiplying from TV and in cyber-space, a cultural resource that individuals can adapt for their own purposes.

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7
Q

What is Lyon’s concept of Religious consumerism?
How are we spiritual shoppers?
Pick and mix?
How has religion relocated the sphere of consumption?
What positivie effect do postmodernists identify in this consumerist, pick and mix culture?
What is Lyon’s re-enchantment of the world?
Is the decline of religion in Europe representative of the globe?

A

-Religious consumerism; postmodern society involves the idea that we now construct our identities through what we consume.
-We are ‘spiritual shoppers’, choosing religious beliefs and practices to meet our individual needs, from the vast range on offer in the religions marketplace.
-We can pick and mix elements of different faiths to suit our tastes and make them part of our identity.
-Sphere of consumption; people may have ceased to belong to religious organisations, but have not abandoned religion. They have become ‘religious consumers’, making conscious choices about which elements of religion they find useful.
-Postmodernists recognise the removal of meta-narratives thanks to pick and mix culture.
-Re-enchantment of the world; Lyon sees recent decades as a period of re-enchantment, with the growth of unconventional beliefs and practices.
-NO. Lyon points to the growth of non-traditional religion in the West and elsewhere.

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8
Q

What do New Age beliefs reject? What do they emphasise instead?
What is the key idea of New Age beliefs?

A

-New Age beliefs reject obligation and obedience to external authority found in traditional religions.
-Instead they emphasise personal development, autonomy & one’s inner self.
-The key idea is individualism; everyone is free to decide for themselves what is true. This is why New Age beliefs have been called ‘self-spirituality’ or ‘self-religions’.

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9
Q

What is a spiritual revolution?
How is the ‘spiritual market’ growing?
What did Heelas and Woodhead study to distinguish between The congergational domain, holistic milieu? Detail thesee.
What did they find about the religiousity engagement between these two in a typical week(2000) ?
Which of these two are losing support? the other?

A

-The give away to a New Age of spirituality that emphasise personal development and experience.
-The ‘spiritual market’ is growing, e.g. the huge number of books about self-help and spirituality and the many ‘therapies’, from meditation to crystal healing.
-Heelas and Woodhead studied the Kendal Project.
-The congregational domain of traditional and evangelical Christian churches.
-The holistic milieu of spirituality and the New Age.
-They found that in a typical week 7.9% of the population attended church and 1.6% took part in spiritual activities(holistic milieu).
-Within the congregational domain, the traditional church were losing support, while evangelical churches were holding their own. Although fewer people were involved in the holistic milieu it was growing.

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10
Q

How do Heelas and Woodhead depict the trends in religiousity? (New age)(Evanagelical churches) (Spiritual marketplace)?
Why is this approach criticised?

A

-New Age spirituality has grown because of a massive ‘subjective turn’ in today’s culture a shift towards exploring your inner self by following a spiritual path. As a result, traditional religions, which demand duty and obedience are declining.
-Evangelical churches are more successful than the traditional churches because they emphasie the subjective aspects: spiritual healing and growth through the personal experience of being ‘born again’.
-In the spiritual marketplace, therefore the winners are those who appeal to personal experience as the only genuine source of meaning and fulfilment, rather than the received teachings and commandments of traditional religion.
-Criticised as this doesn’t mean a spiritual revolution has taken place- the smaller growth of the holistic miliey has not compensated the larger decline of traditional religion.

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11
Q

Who made the argument of ‘the weakness of the New Age? Scale? Socialisation? Weak commitment? Structural weakness?

A

-Bruce argues that the New Age is too weak to fill the gap left by the decline of traditional religion.
-Scale; the growth of the New Age religions would have to be on a much larger sacle to fill the gap left by the decline of traditional religions.
-Socialisation; A belief system can only survive if it is passed down to the next generation in the Kendal study, only a minority of New Agers’ childern shared thier parents’ beliefs.
-Weak commitment; Serious commitment to New Age beliefs is rare.
-Structural weakness; New Age spirituality is a cause of secularisation because of its individualism. It lacks cohesion because everyone is free to believe what they wish.

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12
Q

Who coined the Religous Market theory?
How do people choose their religions?
What do organisations do where there is competition? What happens where there is a monopoly?
What cycle do they identify?
What do they use this argument
to explain? (USA)
What does this not explain?

A

-Stark and Bainbridge.
-They argue that people make a rational cost/benefit analysis on religiosity and religious organisations act like businesses, selling a product.
-Where there is competition then the churches will try and make themselves attractive, where where there is a monopoly, things become stale and unattractive.
-There is a cycle where, a church declines, new products come onto the market(sects, cults etc.) which eventually lead to diversity and religious’revival’.
-They use this argument to explain why(compared with Europe) religion has remained strong in the USA; no one church has ever been dominant there, so there has always been a lively competitive marketplace.
-However, this does not explain the way religion has remained strong in societies with one dominant faith, such as the Middle East and parts of Africa.

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13
Q

Who proposed the existential security theory?
What does this theory suggest?
What does it explain?(developing countries)
How does this explain religiosity in the USA? (safety net)
Why is this criticised?

A

-Norris and Ingleheart.
-This suggests that religion remains a key part of societies where there is a lack of economic security.
-This explains the way in which developing countries have retained high levels of religiosity.
-They argue this explains the situation in the USA. While the USA is a wealthy country, their lack of a ‘safety net’ through a European style welfare system means that there is still a good deal of economic and material insecurity among the population: religion fills the void as a compensator.
-Norris and Ingleheart only see religion as a negative response to deprivation. They ignore the positive reasons people have for religious participation.

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