Topic 3: Secularisation Flashcards
Secularisation trends
Decline in proportion of population going to church
Increase in average age of churchgoers
Fewer baptisms and church weddings
Decline in the numbers holding traditional Christian beliefs
Greater religious diversity- more non-Christian religions
Wilson
Western societies have been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation. Church attendance in England and Wales fell from 40% in the mid-19th century to 10-15% by the 1960s.
In 1962 45% of Americans attended church on Sunday’s. However churchgoing is more an expression of the American way of life than of deeply held religious beliefs. America is still becoming more secular as religion is becoming more superficial.
In pre-industrial society shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals. When religion lost its basis in stable localities it lost its vitality and hold over individuals
Church attendance and religious beliefs today statistics
In 2005 only 6.3% of the adult population attended church on Sunday’s.
In 1971 thee-fifths of weddings were in church, by 2006 only a third were.
Baptisms of children fell for, 55% in 1991 to 41% in 2005
More people claim to hold Christian beliefs than go to church but beliefs are also declining in line with church attendance
Religious institutions today trends
State has taken over education.
Clergy fell from 45,000 in 1900 to 34,000 in 2000, while the politico almost doubled in size
Weber
Rationalisation- Protestant reformation led to the disenchantment of the Catholic worldview of an ‘enchanted garden’ leading to the dominance of a rational and logical mode of thought
Crockett
Based on evidence from the 1851 Census of Religious Worship in that year 40% or more of the adult population attended church on Sundays. This has led to some sociologist calming that the 19th century was a ‘golden age’ of religiosity
Bruce
A technological worldview has replaced religious explanations. Religious explanations only survive in areas where technology is less effective. Scientific knowledge does not in itself makes people atheists but the worldview it encourages causes people to take religion less seriously.
Religion has become privatised as it loses many of its former functions- it is confined to the sphere of home and family. Religious beliefs are now a mater of personal choice and religious institutions and rituals have lost influence and meaning.
Industrialisation undermines the consensus of religious beliefs that small rural communities held together. Plausibility of religion is undermined by alternatives and individualism.
Cultural defence and transition- two counter-trends against secularisation theory
Cultural defence- where religion provides a focal point for defence of a group in a struggle against an external force
Cultural transition- where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different culture
This does not disprove secularisation, but proves that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural.
America is becoming more secular:
Declining church attendance- stable self-reported figure of 40% masks actual decline- socially desirable answering
Secularisation from within- religion has become psychologised- turned into a form of therapy enabling it to survive in a secular society
Religious diversity- Practical relativism- acceptance of the view that otters are entitled to hold different beliefs. Erosion of absolutism- people holding different views undermines our assumption that our own views are completely true
Parsons
Structural differentiation- a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society. Has lead to the disengagement of religion- it’s functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society.
Aldridge
Decline of community does not cause decline of religion- a community does not have to be in a particular area:
Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale
Some religious communities are imagined communities interacting through the use of global media
Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in impersonal urban areas
Berger
Religious diversity- in the Middle Ages people lived under the sacred canopy of the Catholic Church which had an absolute monopoly. Since the reformation there is religious diversity and no church can now claim an unchallenged monopoly of truth- there is now a plurality of life worlds creating a crisis of credibility for religion
Beckford
Opposing views can have the effect of strengthening a religious groups commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them.
Heelas and Woodhead
Distinguish between two groups:
The congressional domain of traditional and evangelical Christianity
The holistic milieu of spirituality and the new age
In 2000 7.9% of the population attended church while 1.6% took part in the holistic milieu. However the holistic milieu was growing while traditional churches were losing support. This is because:
New age spirituality is growing because there has been a massive subjective turn in today’s culture- doing your duty to exploring your inner self
As a result traditional religions that demand duty and obedience are declining
Evangelical churches are more successful because they emphasise the importance of spiritual healing and personal growth through the experience of being born again.
However the growth of spirituality has not compensated for the decline of traditional religion so secularisation is still occurring
Hadaway et al
Opinion poll research asking about church attendance in America suggests it has been stable at about 40% since 1940. However, they found that this figure did not match the churches own attendance statistics.
They studied church attendance in Ashtabula, Ohio. After carrying out head counts at services and asking people if they attended church they found that the claimed attendance level was 83% higher than the reality.
Before the 1970s the opinion polls did match the churches own estimates, showing masked secularisation.
