secularisation Flashcards
What is secularisation?
The process whereby religious thinking, practices and institutions lose social significance
1851
40% or more adults in Britain attended church on Sundays, making the 19th century, a golden age of religiosity, but since then, there have been major changes in UK religion..
What are some of the major changes that have been in UK religion?
-Greater religious diversity, including more non-Christian religions
-Increase in average age of churchgoers
-fewer baptisms and church weddings
-Decline in number of churchgoers
Church attendance today
-The English church consensus (2006) showed that attendance and membership of large religious organisations, such as the church of England, and the Catholic Church have declined more than small organisations
-Small organisations have not made up for the decline of larger ones
Trends of weddings conducted in churches
1971- 59% of weddings conducted in churches
2018- fell to 20%
Trends of children baptised
1991- 55% of children baptised
2005- fell to 41%
2010- fell to 14%
‘bogus baptism’
with baptisms, many faith schools make baptism an entry requirement, so it is possible that children undergo a ‘ bogus baptism’ simply as an entry ticket into high-performance schools but not as a dedication to their faith
Trends in religious affiliation today
-between 1983-2018 the proportion of adult to identify as having no religion, rose to just over half (from under 1/3)
-Those who identify as Christian fell by 40% over the same period (especially Anglicans, Church of England)
-non-Christian religions rose (mainly Islam) due to e.g. Migration and globalisation.
how have religious institutions changed since the 19th century?
-most faith schools are now state funded, and must follow state regulations
-(in the 19th century churches provided education)
-In the house of lords, there are only 26 Church of England bishops, who contributed to the law-making, making a sharp decline over time
-The state now perform some functions that were previously exclusive to religion such as marriage, healthcare and education
Woodhead
A lack of clergy members on the ground in local communities means that day-to-day influence of the church declines
Bruce
if the current trends continue, the Methodist church will fold by 2030, and the church of England will be a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of Heritage property(protected under gov)
Weber- Rationalisation
-in mediaeval Europe, the Catholic world view of God and spiritual/forces as present and active in the world (i.e. Prayers and wearing charms to protect against disease/ insure a good harvest)
-Since the protestant reformation (16th century) religious worldview was slowly becoming replaced with a rational scientific outlook
-Suggests that God was transcendent and did not intervene, but left the Earth to run, according to its own laws of nature
-So events are explained as predictable laws of nature, rather than unpredictable supernatural beings, that can be explained through rational and scientific thought
-disenchantment/ disengagement
What is disenchantment?
The replacement of magical and religious ways of thinking in favour to rational modes of thoughts
e.g. Harvest, eclipse, natural, weather hazards have scientific solutions and answers
Explanations of secularisation- Bruce
supports Weber
-Argues that religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen, have been replaced with a technological world view
e.g a plane breaking due to engine errors instead of due to supernatural intervention
-this leaves little room for religious explanations, unless science/rationality cannot explain it e.g. The afterlife
Parsons
structural differentiation- a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society
-leads to:
-Disengagement- religious functions are transferred onto other institutions, and then become disconnected from society
-Privatisation- religion is now separated from the wider society and is confined to the home and family
Bruce and personal choice
-religious beliefs are now a matter of personal choice and traditional rituals and symbols no longer have a meaning
-Religion must conform to the requirements of a secular state when it still performs its functions e.g. teachers in faith schools must hold qualifications legally recognised by the state.
Social and cultural diversity
3 trends:
-decline of community
-Industrialisation
-Diversity of occupations, culture and lifestyles
decline of community
-move from preindustrial to industrial society has led to a decline in community, and thus the decline of religion
-Because in pre-industrial communities, shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals, that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour BUT when religion lost its basis in stable local communities in lost its vitality, and hold over individuals
industrialisation
-Undermines the consensus of religious beliefs
-Small, close-knit societies has become large-loose knit communities with diverse beliefs and values
-Led to an increase in diversity
-social and geographic mobility, broke up communities even more
diversity of occupations, culture and lifestyles
-lots of people hold different views
-Bruce argues the plausibility (believability) of beliefs is undermined by alternatives and individualism (no community of believers)
-Absence of practising religious community, that functions on a day-to-day basis, has led to religious belief and practice declining
criticisms
-ALDRIDGE: dispute the idea that the decline of community causes a decline in religion as communities do not have to be in a particular area.
-Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale e.g. Hindu, Jewish, Muslim communities.
-some religious communities exist and interact through global media- imagined communities
-Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in ‘ impersonal’ urban areas
Berger- religious diversity
-secularisation may be caused by the trend towards religious diversity, -instead of one religion monopolising, a society and its interpretation, there are many
-The sacred canopy- in the middle ages, Catholicism and the Catholic Church held an absolute monopoly. No competition.
-Everyone lives under the single sacred canopy of Catholic beliefs
-Protestant reformation (16th century) sparked a change in this monopoly- sects broke away from the Catholic Church and grew into a variety of religious organisations (e.g. Calvinism)
-Society is no longer unified under a single sacred kind of canopy
-this diversity has created a ‘ plurality of life worlds’
Bruce- cultural defence and transition
two counter-trends go against a secularisation theory:
(both associated with higher than average levels of religious participation)
-Cultural defence
-Cultural transition
-religion only survives in such situations because it is a focus for group identity and is more likely to survive if it performs functions
cultural defence
where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local group identity against an external force e.g. hostile foreign power.
cultural transition
religion provide support and a sense of community for ethnic groups
e.g. Migrants to a different country and culture
-Herberg-> in his study of religion, and immigration to USA
-Muslim, Hindu etc. Migrants to UK
Berger’s criticism
argues that diversity and choice, actually stimulate interest and participation in religion
-e.g. Growth of evangelicalism in Latin America, and the new Christian right in the USA, pointing to the continuing increase, not decline of religion.
Beckford’s criticism
agrees that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs, but this is not inevitable
-Opposing views can have the effect of strengthening a religious group’s commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them
Wilson
in 1962, 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays, but argue churchgoing in America was more an expression of the ‘American way of life’ > deeply held religious beliefs
-America is a secular society, because religion there had become superficial
Bruce- evidence for secularisation in America
uses three sets of evidence to support this
-Declining church attendance, ‘secularisation from within’ and a trend towards religious diversity and relativism
Declining church attendance- Hadaway et al
-Ohio, Ashtabula county
-carried out headcounts at services then in interviews, ask people if they attended church
-83% higher claimed by interviewees > researcher’s estimate of church attendance in the country
-this masks the decline in actual attendance in the US
Secularisation from within
this emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs, and glorifying God has declined and religion in America has become ‘ psychologised’ or turned into a form of therapy
-Churchgoers are less strict in the adherence to traditional religious morality
-The purpose of religion has changed from for salvation to for seeking personal improvement in this world
Lynd and Lynd- Religious diversity
found in 1924, 94% of churchgoing young people agreed with the statement that ‘Christianity is the one true religion and all people should be converted to it’
However, by 1977, only 41% agreed
Evidence against secularisation in America
-changing it’s form, not declining
-Secularisation theory ignores religious, revivals going on and the growth of new religion is so is one-sided
-Ignore those who believe, but don’t attend church
-Religion has declined in Europe, but not America shown that secularisation is not universal
-The past was not a ‘golden age’ of faith, from which we have declined, and the future will not be an age of atheism
-ignores new religious trends/options- religious diversity actually increases participation because it offers choice and there is no overall downward trend
