Secularisation Debate

Question 1

Evidence of decline in religion

Answer 1

• Crockett estimates that in 1851 40% of adults attended sunday services
• 19th century was golden age of religiosity since then
• decline in proportion of population going to church
• increase in average age of church goers
• fewer baptisms and church weddings
• greater religious diversity

Question 2

Wilson 1966 (for)

Answer 2

• western societies have been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation (the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and instititutions lose social significance)
• church attendance in England and Wales had fallen from 40% in mid 19th century to 10-15% in 1960’s
• britain had become a secular society

Question 3

Church Attendance today

Answer 3

• Trends Wilson identified have continued
• only 6.3% of the adult population attended church on sundays in 2005 (halved since Wilsons research), projected to fall a further 4.7% by 2015
• while church weddings and baptisms remain more popular than attendance at sunday services trend is also downwards - in 1971 3/5 weddings were in church, but by 2006 that was 1/3. Baptisms fell from 55% in 1991 to 41% in 2005

Question 4

Religious beliefs today

Answer 4

• More people claim they hold Christian beliefs than actually belong to or go to church
• religious belief is declining in line with the decline in church attendance and membership
• Gill - reviewed almost 100 national surveys on religious belief from 1939 to 1996 and showed a significant decline in belief in a personal god, in Jesus as the son of God, and in traditional teachings about the afterlife and the Bible. When asked, ‘Would you describe yourself as being of any religion?’ Only 23% replied no in 1950 but in 1996 this had increased to 43%

Question 5

Religious instituitions today

Answer 5

• influence of religion as a social instituition has declined
• although church has some influence on public life (26 Bishops in house of Lords), this has declined significantly since 19th century
• one measure of institutional weakness is the number of clergy which fell from 45,000 in 1900 to 34,000in 2000

Question 6

What are the six explanations of secularisation

Answer 6

• Modernisation (Wilson)
• Rationalisation (Weber)
• Technological worldview (Bruce)
• Structural differentiation (Parsons)
• Religious diversity (Berger)
• Social and cultural diversity (Wilson/Bruce)

Question 7

What is Modernisation? (For)

Answer 7

• Wilson / Bruce
• 6.3% of pop attended church on sundays in 2005, half the original findings -1966 - Wilson
• We have other sources to religion - Bruce
• Modernisation can lead to fundamentalism and secularisation or cosmopoliton which could increase attendance

Question 8

What is Rationalisation? (For)

Answer 8

• Weber
• We now have a rational and scientific outlook
• No longer a need for the supernatural
• This began with protestant reformation
• A process of disenchantment : No magical or religious ways of thinking - rational modes of thought
• protestant work ethic led to capitalism and made world more ‘rational’ and ‘this worldly’

Question 9

What is Technological Worldview? (For)

Answer 9

• Bruce
• agrees there has been a process of disenchantment - the supernatural has now been replaced with science
• technological worldview has replaced religious explanation
• we turn to the internet and to science to solve problems

Question 10

What is structural differentiation? (For)

Answer 10

• Parsons
• religion provided services for society in the past - now the state does
• education and the NHS became state provided
• structural differentiation - functions of religion transferred to the state
• this means religious has less relevance and influence in people’s lives compared to the past

Question 11

What is religious diversity? (For)

Answer 11

• Berger
• another cause of secularisation is the trend towards religious diversity where instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one intepretation of the faith there are many

Question 12

What is social/cultural diversity? (For)

Answer 12

• Wilson / Bruce
• decline of community leads to decline of religion.
  Wilson - in preindustrial communities shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour.
  Bruce - sees industrialisation as undermining the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together

Question 13

What are the four theories going against secularisation?

Answer 13

• Cultural defence and transition - Bruce
• Growth of New age beliefs - Heelas and Woodhead
• Eurocentric / Victorian Britain - Martin
• Postmodern view - Davie, Lyon, Hervieu-Leger

Question 14

Cultural defence/transition (evidence against)

Answer 14

• Bruce
• Cultural Defence - religion provides focal point for defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in struggle against external force
• Cultural transition - provides support and community when moving culture

Question 15

Growth of New age beliefs / movements (evidence against)

Answer 15

• Heelas and Woodhead
• spiritual revolution is taking place today. Traditional Christianity is giving way to ‘holistic spirituality or new age beliefs and practices’. Traditional religion has declined but is being replaced

Question 16

Victorian Britain, Eurocentric view (evidence against)

Answer 16

• Martin (critique of Wilson)
• Questions if Britain has gone through a process of secularisation. Debates the validity of making historical comparisons. In Victorian Britain, the emergent middle class tended to use church attendance as a means of ‘creating and maintaining a sense of respectability’

Question 17

Postmodern View (evidence against)

Answer 17

• Davie, Hervieu-Leger, Lyon
• Religion has not declined it has just changed and is now more diverse, allowing individuals freedom and choice in how they express religion. Religion is still a source of identity in an increasingly postmodern and global world