Religion, Renewal and Choice

Question 1

The Secularisation Thesis

Answer 1

States that Religiosity is declining.

Question 2

Problems with the secularisation thesis:

Answer 2

• Doesn’t apply to all countries equally.
• Maybe religion is changing not declining.
• Doesn’t apply to all religions equally, e.g. Muslims in Britain.

Question 3

Davie - privatisation

Answer 3

• Religion is becoming more privatised. In the sense that it is not something you do in public, you do it at home.
• E.g. fall in infant baptisms and rise in adult baptisms.

Question 4

Davie - declining church attendance

Answer 4

• People are reluctant to join organisations such as churches, but people still hold religious beliefs. She calls this believing without belonging.

Question 5

Davie - vicarious religion + examples

Answer 5

• We like other people being religious on our behalf.
• 5% go to church, but 50% say they would be sad if their local church closed down.

Question 6

Bruce

Answer 6

If people cannot be bothered to go to church, this reflects the decline in beliefs.

Question 7

Hervieu-Leger - cultural amnesia

Answer 7

• Our society has forgotten how to be religious.
• In the past, children were taught how to be religious now they’re not.
• Greater social equality means the Church no longer has the power to impose religion on young people.

Question 8

According to Hervieu-Leger, what has replaced institutional religion?

Answer 8

• Individual consumerism.
• People have a choice as consumers of religion or spiritual shoppers.

Question 9

Hervieu-Leger two new religious types:

Answer 9

• Pilgrims follow an individual path in a search for self-discovery.
• Converts join religious groups that offer a strong sense of belonging.

Question 10

Lyon - traditional religion

Answer 10

• Traditional religion is giving way to a variety of new religious forms.

Question 11

Lyon - globalisation- disembedded

Answer 11

• We are saturated with images and messages from around the globe and instantaneous access to ideas and beliefs.
• This has led to religious ideas becoming disembedded - moving to different times and places.
• People can be religious without going to church.

Question 12

Helland

Answer 12

Religion online: a way a religious organisation uses the internet to address members and recruit new members. e.g. the Pope has 18.7 million followers on twitter.
Online religion: as a many-to-many form of communication where believers create a non-hierarchal online community. e.g. Pagans studied by Cowan (2005)

Question 13

Hoover- in response to Helland

Answer 13

• The effect of the internet has been overstated.
• Most people who use online religion and religion online use it to supplement their church-based activities instead of an alternative.

Question 14

Lyon - religion has relocated to the sphere of consumption

Answer 14

• People have become religious consumers.
• Make conscious choices about which elements of religion they find useful.

Question 15

Lyon - religion as a metanarrative

Answer 15

• Loss of faith in religion as a metanarrative.
• We have access to a wide range of different and contradictory beliefs that undermine the plausibility structure of religions as a MN.

Question 16

New Age

Answer 16

Self - spirituality and detraditionalism.

Question 17

Lyon - re-enchantment of the world.

Answer 17

• There is a growth of unconventional beliefs, practises and spirituality.

Question 18

Heelas and Woodhead - spiritual revolution, subjective turn & duty

Answer 18

• As traditional religions are declining, people are turning to spiritual beliefs.
• Subjective turn beliefs are subjective to the individual.
• Traditional religion is declining because it requires duty and obedience whereas spirituality is free for you to choose.

Question 19

Evidence of a spiritual revolution

Answer 19

The Kendal project = Interviews, questionnaires.
- In any given week, 8% of people went to church. 1.6% do ‘spiritual activities’.

Question 20

Bruce (criticism of Heelas and Woodhead)

Answer 20

• Their evidence does not support this.
• The Problem of Scale The New Age is not growing fast enough to compensate for the fall in church attendance.
• Socialisation of the next generation practitioners are unlikely to pass their views onto their children.
• Weak commitment Glendinning and Bruce found that people dabble in the New Age without serious commitment.
• Structural Weakness the New Age lacks an external power, has no consensus about beliefs and cannot evangelise.

Question 21

Stark and Bainbridge - criticism of the secularisation theory
RMT

Answer 21

• It is eurocentric
• It only explains what happens in Europe, but not elsewhere in the world.
• They believe that there was no golden age of religion in the past.
• Unrealistic to predict a future where there will be no religion.

Question 22

Religious Market theory (assumptions) - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT

Answer 22

• They say people are naturally religious.
• When people make choices, they weigh up the costs & benefits (rational choice theory)

Question 23

Compensators that religion offers that non-religious ideologies do not - Stark and Bainbridge

Answer 23

• Religion offers you rewards that non-religious ideologies do not. E.g. heaven.

Question 24

Cycle of renewal - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT

Answer 24

• Religion is always changing.
• Instead of dissapearing, new forms of religion replace old ones.

Question 25

Churches are similar to businesses in a marketplace - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT

Answer 25

• Businesses/Churches that offer what their customers want, are successful and grow.
• Those that don’t, decline.

Question 26

Religion has not declined in America, but has in Europe - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT

Answer 26

• In America, they have absolute freedom of religion, because of that there is a huge market and you are bound to find a religion that suits you.

Question 27

• Studies that support Stark and Bainbridge’s theory…
  RMT

Answer 27

• Televangelism, links to the prosperity gospel - God likes if you’re rich.
• Megachurches (space for 2000+ people)
• Stark also says Japan is another free market for religion.

Question 28

Norris and Inglehart (Existential security theory) - criticises religious market theory.

Answer 28

• There is no link between religious freedom and levels of religiosity.
• RMT might seem to explain the USA, but does not explain religiosity elsewhere in the world. E.g. Ireland, Poland and Russia.

Question 29

Norris and Inglehart - differences in religiosity between countries.
EST

Answer 29

• Existential security means being able to assume that you will survive.
• In countries with free healthcare, they feel much more secure.
• This sense of security reduces their need to turn to religion.
• Offers compensators (S&B) and helps us to cope with uncertainty (Malinowski)
• People without this are more likely to turn to religion.

Question 30

Norris and Inglehart EST - differences in religiosity between Europe and America

Answer 30

• The USA is rich, but has no welfare state, feel less secure.
• Even rich people fear they could lose it all.