secularisation Flashcards
How does Wilson define secularisation?
Decline in social significance of religious thinking, practice, and institutions
Does religious belief support secularisation?
Give evidence
Yes, less people have religious beliefs
2001=15% aethiests
2021=37% aethiests
Do institutions support secularisation?
Give evidence
Yes, state has taken over the Church’s control, and the decline of clergy
E.g. Church used to provide education, state does this now, even in most ‘faith schools’
Catholic priests have halfed from 1965 and 2020
Does attendance support secularisation?
Give evidence
Yes
Church:
1851=40%
Now=>5%
Weddings:
1800=100%
Now=>25%
What are the 3 reasons for secularisation?
Rationalisation
Disengagement
Pluralism (religious diversity)
What is rationalisation?
What does Weber argue about this?
How rational ways of thinking and acting replace religious ones
The Protestant reformation started it, replacing it with a scientific outlook on modern society
In rationalism, what does Weber argue about an ‘enchanted garden’?
What ended this?
That’s what Catholics saw the world as
Humans could try to influence God and spiritual beings e.g. angels by magical means e.g. spells/prayers to ensure good harvests disease
What caused an end to the ‘enchanted garden’?
Disenchantment:
Protestant reformation saw God as existing beyond this world, he couldn’t intervene with issues>rationality: reason, science, technology
No need for enchanted garden
What does Weber argue about a technological worldview?
Growth of tech has replaced religious explanations for why things happen e.g. when a plane crash happens, we dont think of it as Gods punishment, instead technological error
What is a criticism of rationalisation?
Religious explanations can occur in circumstances with little technological help e.g. terminal illness, we pray as there’s nothing tech can do
According to Parson’s, what is disengagement?
Religious functions being transferred to other institutions e.g. the state, becoming disconnected from wider society e.g. the Church loses influence it once had on education
What is a criticism of disengagement?
Church isn’t fully disengaged from society e.g. ‘Church of England’ schools
What is Pluralism (religious diversity)?
There are many religious organisations and interpretations of faiths, instead of 1
In pluralism, what is the ‘sacred canopy’?
The European Catholic Church used to hold a ‘monopoly’ -no competition>everyone lived under a shared canopy of shared beliefs
How did the sacred canopy change?
When protestant Churches broke away from the Catholic Church
Since then, the number and variety of religious organisations has grown
What is a criticism of religious diversity?
They argue religion is becoming more diverse with religions…how is this desecularisation
What are 2 examples of desecularisation?
1 Cross being used by non-Christians
2 Sundays
What arguments undermine the 3 secularisation arguments?
Myth of ‘golden age’ of religion
Invalid statistics on Church attendence
What does the myth of the ‘golden age’ argue?
People weren’t really as religious as it seemed
One feature of the myth of the ‘golden age’ is that the attendance (40%) doesn’t reflect the majority of society
Explain
Church attendence:
1851=40%
Now=>5%
*We don’t know how the statistics were collected
One feature of the myth of the ‘golden age’ is that people didn’t go to Church for religious reasons
Explain
Reasons people went to Church in the 1900s:
Social status, to look like MC
Employer making them go
Religious ceremonies
What does Church attendance statistics measure?
What do they not measure?
Physical presence
If they’re really religious and engaging
How do Church’s measure attendance?
Priests estimate attendance
Some do regular headcounts, some estimate from previous headcounts
Why are the Church of England’s attendance stats too high?
Why are the Catholic’s Church attendance stats too low?
Exaggerate to stay open and prevent shutting down
Avoid paying more fees to the head office
RELIGION RENEWAL AND CHOICE
Why would people be attending church other than belief?
Social
How they always grew up
Belonging not believing
What does Davie argue?
Religion isnt declining, its changing
People now have personal choice, couldn’t always do this e.g. Catholic Church used to oblidge people to attend Church
Statistics on attendance aren’t accurate as not everyone is counted
What does Davie argue about ‘privatised religion’?
Religion isnt decling, its privatised
People are reluctant to belong to organisations e.g. Church, but can still be religious’ -Believing without belonging’
What is a criticism of Davie?
Von and Crockett oppose Davies’s claim about believing than belonging, instead its ‘neither believing nor belonging’
They argue that evidence shows Church attendance and belief in God is declining
If people aren’t willing to invest time into Church=declining religious beliefs
What does Hervieu-Leger (postmodernists) argue?
Decline in religion because of cultural amnesia
Lack of commitment to any religious traditions, that was once passed down from generations Instead individuals make personal choices
People are now consumers of religion -‘spiritual shoppers’
What does Hervieu-Leger argue about spiritual shoppers?
Pick and choose/mix what elements they’d wish to keep, discarding those that don’t fit their lifestyle/belief
This individualised approach>longstanded traditions are challenged
This has had a profound impact on traditional institutions e.g. churches and temples
What does Lyon (postmodernist) argue?
Jesus in Disneyland
Agrees with Davie that people can believe without belonging
We are moving from traditional religion to new forms
Focusses on: globalisation and religion consumerism
What does Lyon argue about globalisation?
Globalisation=growing interconnectedness of societies
This has led to growing interconnectedness of religion, through media and technology spreading info globally
According to Lyon, what has globalisation led to?
Religion becoming disembedded
Shift from physical Churches to out of church e.g. online -believing not belonging
Religion becomes de-institutionalised=removed from original location (Church), to new adapted places
What do postmodernists argue about religious consumerism?
Identities are constructed from what we consume
We no longer have to sign up to specific religious traditions as we are now ‘spiritual shoppers’, we consume what is attractive to us
What is an effect of religious consumerism?
Loss of faith in ‘meta-narratives’=views that claim to have the absolute truth (traditional religions)
People now have a wide range of religion
There is no longer a monopoly of the Church, they’re losing their authority, but religion isn’t declining, just evolving
What are 2 critisms of Lyon’s Jesus in Disneyland
Traditional Church is still going
Can’t measure how much impact the internet has on religion
What are New Age beliefs and practices?
The new forms of religion and spirituality that Lyon refers to
What are 2 features of the New Age?
Detraditionalisation- rejecting external authority
Self-spirituality- ‘individualism’=everyone is free to decide what is true e.g. spiritual shopping
What are 3 examples of the New Age movement?
Crystal healing
Tarot reading
Yoga
*Often requires spending
What is a spiritual revolution?
Traditional Christianity is giving way to ‘holistic spirituality’ or New Age spirituality beliefs that emphasise personal development and subjective experiences
Give evidence to the spiritual revolution
Increase in spiritual market shops, books, practitioners, therapies
How does Lyon criticise secularisation theory?
For assuming religion is declining and being replaced by rationality
Instead of disenchanchment, there is re-enchantment- growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality
What was the Kendal project?
Tested spiritual revolution, investigating whether traditional religion has declined, and how spirituality is growing
What was the 2 groups the Kendal project distinguished?
‘Congregational domain’-traditional and evangelical (protestant) Christianity
‘Holistic milieu’-spirituality and the New Age
What did the Kendal project find?
Congreational domain=7.9%
Holistic milieu=1.6%
Spiritual revolution is happening, eventhough new age is lower, its growing, and will eventually overtake
Supports self spirituality
What is an impact of the New Age spiritual revolution?
Increase in evangelical churches- emphasises the importance of spiritual healing, alongside demand for discipline
One weakness of the New Age is the problem of scale
There is a growth of individualism, but this needs to be on a larger scale if it wants to fill the decline of traditional institutionalised religions
E.g. in Kendals study, 7.9% vs 1.6%
One weakness of the New Age argument is with socialisation of the next generation
For a belief system to survive, it needs to be passed to the next generation
In Kendal’s study only 32% of parents who were involved in the New Age said their children shared their spiritual interests
