Religion, Renewal, Choice Flashcards
New forms of religion
Believing without Belonging:
- Davie= religion is becoming privatised as people are reluctant to belong to organisations. BUT still have religious beliefs.
- Vicarious Religion= wider commitment, offer support from churches when needed (EG: food banks).
- disagrees with secularisation- multiple modernities, not all affected in the same ways.
Spiritual Shopping:
- Leger= decline in obligation, increase of personal choice.
- Cultural Amnesia= religion not passed onto children, no fixed identity imposed
- Individual consumerism replaced collective religion so more choice.
- ‘do it yourself’ beliefs give meaning to fit interests.
- 2 groups developed- PILGRIMS= individual path, CONVERTS= join groups to have sense of belonging
- Pick n mix- have parts of different faiths.
Postmodern Religion:
- Lyon= religion is disembedded
RELIGION ONLINE= internet used to address members / traditional / heirarchal / no feedback between people
ONLINE RELIGION= ‘ cyber religion’ so no existence outside of the internet.
Evaluation:
- Hoover= this is only a supplement
- Lyon= relocated to ‘sphere of consumption’ - religious by only using parts important to them.
- Berger= this weakens traditional religion, no fixed truth so authority declines due to new choices
New Age (A Spiritual Revolution)
Weaknesses of the New Age movement
‘A Spiritual Revolution’:
- an increase of ‘spiritual market’= Christianity gives way for new age beliefs ‘holistic spirituality’ (EG: self-help, therapies).
- Heelas and Woodhead= The Kendall Project investigated the decline of traditional religion. Found 2 groups in 2000:
(1) Congregational Domain (traditional religion), 7.9% followers
(2) Holistic Milieu (new age), 1.6% followers
- Churches losing support:
(1) shift from obeying external authority
(2) traditional religion is in decline
(3) Evangelical churches are successful due to discipline, but emphasis on personal growth.
Weaknesses:
- Bruce= New Age has large gap to fill from traditional religions, religion MUST be passed to children but Kendall showed only 32% of children share parent’s NA beliefs. Lack of external authority= no shared values= cannot grow.
- Glendinning and Bruce= rare to have strong commitment to NA beliefs, few said they are part of daily life.
Religious market theory
Stark and Bainbridge= secularisation theory is Eurocentric= does not focus on validity in American and elsewhere.
RMT= people are naturally religious, human nature is to seek rewards.
Compensator: non-religious ideologies can’t give supernatural rewards (EG: afterlife). Cycle of Renewal= some grow, some decline in membership. Religious competition= act as business so improved quality.
America vs Europe: USA= no monopoly so increased religion. Europe= 1 state church, no choice. Religion declines due to restricted choice.
Supple led religion: Hadden and Shupe= growth of televangelism- 1960s= more competition so evangelical churches thrived.
Finke= 1960s= USA lift restrictions on Asian Immigration, so new permanent religions, become popular. They grow due to many resources and activities for members.
Evaluation:
- Bruce= diversity accompanies religious decline, no past ‘golden age’. Secularisation= long term decline and not universal.
- Norris and Inglehart= higher participation with religious monopoly, decreased participation with religious plurality.
Secularisation and Security
Norris and Inglehart=
- rejects Religious market theory: (1) only applies to America (2) does not explain varieties in other societies.
Existential Security Theory: less demand for religion is secure societies.
- poor societies: increase religion due to less security (EG: disease / famine)
- rich societies: less religion as more security (EG: high standard of living)
- Demand is not constant- varies between societies (EG: West= secular, Developing Countries= remain religious).
Europe vs. America: West= more secular as more secure and equal. USA remains religious due to dog-eat-dog values causing increased poverty and insecurity.
- Theory of Insecurity= USA remains religious by standards of rich not poor.
State welfare and religiosity:
- Gill and Lundengarde: in the past= religion used for welfare. 20th century= state gives welfare, so religion declines.
- they do not expect religion to decline completely: welfare gives security but doesn’t answer ‘ultimate’ questions (EG: meaning of life).
- availability of welfare reduces religion but doesn’t not eliminate it.
