Secularisation

Question 1

Wilson

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Weber

Answer 2

Rationalisation - secularisation has occurred due to science/scientific and rational though taking over religious ways of thinking, linked to the Protestant Reformation.

Question 3

Parsons (2 Points)

Answer 3

Structural differentiation - secularisation has occurred due to structural differentiation whereby religious institutions (the church) have lost their functions to other institutions so for example, the church would nurse people back to health, now the NHS does this
Social and cultural diversity - secularisation has occurred due to social and cultural diversity; due to decline in smaller communities where everyone would practice religion together, now we are geographically and socially mobile so people are always moving in and out of communities and therefore religion cant exist in one place/one community.

Question 4

Berger

Answer 4

Religious diversity - due to so many different religions we are no longer under one sacred canopy and therefore we cannot trust in one religion due to so many different versions of the truth.