Secularisation Flashcards
How do sociologists define secularisation?
AO1/2
- Wilson: “the process whereby religious thinking, practice, and institutions lose social significance”
- Weber: “the disenchantment” of the world”
How can we criticise definitions of secularisation?
AO3
- Lyotard: we are now experiencing the renchantment of the world - religion is not declining just changing form
- Davie: believing without belonging - institutions declining in importance doesn’t mean society is secularising
- Davie: vicarious religion - most religions have an active minority who the majority experience teaching from vicariously
How do Glock and Stark criticise secularisation?
AO1/2/3
Secularisation requires a decline of faith in comparison to the past. This is often based on the misguided assumption of a historic ‘Golden Age of Faith’. This can be challenged by:
- Unreliable historical records: data is sparse, has gaps missing, and is often based on church headcounts which is flawed methodology
- Lack of opinion polls: we have no understanding of why people attended church in this time - could have been due to social desirability
- Crockett: 1851 Census - church attendance was only 40%
How can we analyse religious beliefs, practices, and institutions losing significance?
AO3
BELIEF:
- General Social Survey: The amount of people who claim to not believe in God and **never have **has doubled between 1998 and 2018
- General Social Survey: 1/3 of the population consider themself “very or extremely non-religious”
- BUT laws still reflect the values of the C of E
PRACTICE:
- Only 49% of the population claim to pray
- For the past 20 years, weekly church attendance has remained at a low 11% of the population
- BUT Abrahamic religions are still taught in many schools as part of the Religious Studies Curriculum
INSTITUTIONS:
- In 2024 only 17% of weddings were in a church
- Around a third of the population feel religious insititutions have too much power or far too much power
- BUT there are 26 Bishops in the House of Lords
