Religion, Renewal and Choice Flashcards
The Secularisation Thesis
States that Religiosity is declining.
Problems with the secularisation thesis:
- 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.
Davie - privatisation
- 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.
Davie - declining church attendance
- People are reluctant to join organisations such as churches, but people still hold religious beliefs. She calls this believing without belonging.
Davie - vicarious religion + examples
- 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.
Bruce
If people cannot be bothered to go to church, this reflects the decline in beliefs.
Hervieu-Leger - cultural amnesia
- 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.
According to Hervieu-Leger, what has replaced institutional religion?
- Individual consumerism.
- People have a choice as consumers of religion or spiritual shoppers.
Hervieu-Leger two new religious types:
- Pilgrims follow an individual path in a search for self-discovery.
- Converts join religious groups that offer a strong sense of belonging.
Lyon - traditional religion
- Traditional religion is giving way to a variety of new religious forms.
Lyon - globalisation- disembedded
- 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.
Helland
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)
Hoover- in response to Helland
- 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.
Lyon - religion has relocated to the sphere of consumption
- People have become religious consumers.
- Make conscious choices about which elements of religion they find useful.
Lyon - religion as a metanarrative
- 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.
New Age
Self - spirituality and detraditionalism.
Lyon - re-enchantment of the world.
- There is a growth of unconventional beliefs, practises and spirituality.
Heelas and Woodhead - spiritual revolution, subjective turn & duty
- 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.
Evidence of a spiritual revolution
The Kendal project = Interviews, questionnaires.
- In any given week, 8% of people went to church. 1.6% do ‘spiritual activities’.
Bruce (criticism of Heelas and Woodhead)
- 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.
Stark and Bainbridge - criticism of the secularisation theory
RMT
- 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.
Religious Market theory (assumptions) - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT
- They say people are naturally religious.
- When people make choices, they weigh up the costs & benefits (rational choice theory)
Compensators that religion offers that non-religious ideologies do not - Stark and Bainbridge
- Religion offers you rewards that non-religious ideologies do not. E.g. heaven.
Cycle of renewal - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT
- Religion is always changing.
- Instead of dissapearing, new forms of religion replace old ones.
Churches are similar to businesses in a marketplace - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT
- Businesses/Churches that offer what their customers want, are successful and grow.
- Those that don’t, decline.
Religion has not declined in America, but has in Europe - Stark and Bainbridge
RMT
- 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.
- Studies that support Stark and Bainbridge’s theory…
RMT
- 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.
Norris and Inglehart (Existential security theory) - criticises religious market theory.
- 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.
Norris and Inglehart - differences in religiosity between countries.
EST
- 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.
Norris and Inglehart EST - differences in religiosity between Europe and America
- The USA is rich, but has no welfare state, feel less secure.
- Even rich people fear they could lose it all.
