Secularisation Flashcards
Give four changes to religion in the UK since 1851.
- Decline in proportion of the population going to church or belonging to one.
- Increase in average age of churchgoers.
- Fewer baptisms and church weddings.
- Greater diversity, including more non-Christian religions.
Define secularisation.
Wilson: ‘ The process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance.’
Explain how church attendance today shows that Britain has become a secular society.
2015: 5% of adult pop. attended church on Sundays.
1960: Sunday attendance - 1.6 mil.
2013: Under 0.8 mil.
1971: 60% weddings in church.
2012: 30% weddings in church.
Explain how religious affiliation today shows that Britain has become a secular society.
- Between 1983 & 2014, the percentage of adults without a religion rose from 1/3 to 1/2 (roughly).
- Same period: Those identifying as Christian fell by 1/3. Anglicans (Church of England members) more than halved.
Explain how religious belief today shows that Britain has become a secular society.
Surveys: Significant decline: - Belief in a personal God - Jesus as the son of God - Christian teachings about afterlife & Bible.
Explain how religious institutions today show that Britain has become a secular society.
Church has some influence on public life, (e.g 26 CoE bishops sit in the House of Lords, where they have some influence in lawmaking) but it’s declined significantly since the 19th century.
Religion has become privatised e.g education provided by the state not church since mid-19th century + decline in faith schools.
How has modernisation affected religious belief?
The decline of tradition and its replacement with rational and scientific ways of thinking tends to undermine religion.
What is the effect of industrialisation on small communities?
Leads to the break up of small communities that were held together by common religious beliefs.
What is the impact of religious diversity on religious institutions and on religious beliefs?
Secularisation theorists argue it has undermined both the authority of religious institutions and the credibility of religious beliefs.
Define rationalisation.
The process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones.
Briefly outline the medieval Catholic worldview.
- World: ‘Enchanted garden.’
- God & other spiritual beings/forces e.g angels, Satan etc. were believed to be present on Earth changing events through their supernatural powers & miraculous interventions in it.
- Humans could try to influence these beings/forces by magical means (prayers, spells, fasts, charms etc.) to ensure a good harvest, protect against disease etc.
How did the Protestant worldview differ from that of Catholicism?
Catholics saw supernatural forces as governing natural disasters (e.g plane crash) so they used their religion to find answers. Protestants believe that God created Earth but then left it to its own devices, therefore they believe in explaining things scientifically and rationally because the supernatural doesn’t intervene.
What does Weber mean by the ‘disenchantment’ of the world?
Change from religious explanations to scientific and technological ones.
How did the Protestant Reformation lead to the ‘disenchantment’ of the world?
Squeezes out magical + religious ways of thinking + starts the rationalisation process that leads to the domination of rational mode of thought enabling science to thrive.
Using an example, briefly explain what Bruce means by the technological worldview?
When a plane crashes with the loss of many lives, we’re unlikely to regard it as the work of evil spirits or God’s punishment of the wicked. Instead, we look for scientific + technological explanations.
What is the impact of scientific knowledge on people’s attitude towards religion?
Although it doesn’t challenge religion directly, it’s greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations. It doesn’t make people atheists, but the worldview encourages results in people taking religious less seriously.
Define structural differentiation.
Parsons: ‘A process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society.’
Briefly outline what is meant by disengagement. Give two examples.
Parsons:
- Structural differentiation —> disengagement of religion.
- Functions are transferred to other institutions (e.g the state) + becomes disconnected from wider society.
Example:
- Church loses influence it once had on education, social welfare + the law.
According to Bruce, in what sense has religion become privatised?
- Confined to the private sphere of the home and family. - Religious beliefs: largely a matter of personal choice.
- Religious institutions have lost much of their influence on wider society.
Briefly outline how the decline of community leads to a decline in religion.
Wilson:
- Pre-industrial communities: Shared values expressed through collective rituals that integrated individuals + regulated behaviour.
- However: When religion lost its basis in stable local communities, it lost its vitality + hold over individuals.
Briefly outline how industrialisation leads to a decline in religion.
Bruce:
- Industrialisation: Undermines consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together.
- Small close-knit rural communities: give way to large loose-knit urban communities with diverse beliefs + values.
- Social + geographical mobility: breaks up communities but brings people together from many different backgrounds increasing diversity.
Briefly outline how diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles leads to a decline in religion.
Bruce:
- Argues: plausibility of beliefs is undermined by alternatives + individualism (plausibility of religion depends on existence of a practising community of believers).
- In the absence of a practising religious community that functions on a day-to-day basis, both religious belief + practise tend to decline.
Give three criticisms of the view that the decline of community causes the decline of religion.
The view that the decline of community causes the decline of religion has been criticised (Aldridge: a community doesn’t have to be in a particular area):
- Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale. This is true of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities for example.
- Some religious communities are ‘imagined communities’ that interact through the use of global media.
- Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in ‘impersonal’ urban areas.
What is meant by the ‘sacred canopy’?
Set of beliefs shared by all. Gave these beliefs greater plausibility because they had no challengers and the Church’s version of the truth was unquestioned.
According to Berger, how did the Protestant Reformation lead to religious diversity?
Since the reformation, the number + variety of religious organisations has continued to grow, each with a different version of the truth.
Briefly explain how religious diversity creates a crisis of credibility for religion.
- Diversity undermines religions ‘plausibility structure’ - the reasons why people find it believable.
- Alternative versions of religion to choose leads to people questioning all religions.
- This erodes certainties of traditional religion.
What is cultural defence?
Where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external force (e.g a hostile foreign power).
Examples:
- Popularity of Catholicism in Poland before fall communism
- Resurgence of Islam before the revolution in Iran (1979).
What is cultural transition?
- Where religion provides support + a sense of community for ethnic groups (migrants + culture).
- Herberg describes this in his study of religion & immigration to the USA.
- Religion has performed similar functions for Irish, African Caribbean, Muslim, Hindu + other migrants to the UK.
According to Bruce, why does religion survive in situations of cultural defence and cultural transition?
It’s a focus for group identity. Thus these examples don’t disprove secularisation, but show that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural.
Briefly outline two criticisms of secularisation theory.
Berger (1999):
- Changed his views + now argues diversity & choice stimulate interest + participation in religion.
- Example: Growth of evangelicalism (Latin America) & the New Christian Right (USA) point to the continuing vitality of religion, not its decline.
Beckford (2003):
- Agrees with idea that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs, but this isn’t inevitable.
- Opposing views: Can strengthen a religious groups commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them.
According to Wilson, why is America a secular society despite relatively high church attendance?
- 1962: 45% of America attended church on Sundays.
- Argued: churchgoing in America was ‘the American way of life’ rather than deeply held religious beliefs.
- Claimed: America was a secular society, not because people had abandoned churches, but because religion had become superficial.
How does Hadaway’s research question the statistics for church attendance?
Found figure didn’t match the churches’ own attendance stats. If 40% of Americans were going to church, the churches would be full, but they weren’t.
What reasons does Bruce suggest for the difference in actual and reported church attendance?
It’s still seen as desirable or normative to go to church, so people who’ve stopped going will still say they attend if asked in a survey.
Briefly explain what Bruce means by secularisation from within.
- Emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs & glorifying God has declined + religion in America has become ‘psychologised’ or turned into a form of therapy.
- American religion has remained popular by becoming less religious.
Briefly explain what Bruce means by practical relativism.
Acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold beliefs that are different to our own.
Briefly explain the erosion of absolutism.
We now live in a society where many people hold views that are completely different to ours, which undermines our assumption that our own views are absolutely true.
Briefly outline four criticisms of secularisation theory.
- Theory is one-sided. Focus: decline. Ignores: religious revivals + growth of new religions
- Evidence of falling church attendance ignore people who believe but don’t go to church.
- Religion isn’t declining but simply changing its form.
- Religion may have declined in Europe but not globally, so secularisation isn’t universal.
