Topic 5 - Secularisation

Question 1

Secularisation

Answer 1

• WILSON “The process whereby religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose significance”
• Church attendance has fallen from 40% in the mid-19th century to 10-15% of the population by the 1960s

Question 2

Evidence that society is becoming more secular

Answer 2

• A decline in the proportion of the population going to church
• An increase in the average age of churchgoers
• Fewer baptisms and church weddings
• A decline in the numbers holding traditional christian beliefs
• Greater religious diversity, including spirituality, and more non-Christian religions

Question 3

Church attendance today

Answer 3

• WILSON = 2015 5% of the adult population attend church on sundays, this has halved since the 1960s
• English Church Census (2006) = attendance at large organisations has fallen compared to small scale organisations (remained steady or grown)
• STARK and BAINBRIDGE = If the state is connected to a religious organisation then it removes the choice from choosing what to follow = religion decreases

Question 4

A03 Church attendance today

Answer 4

• DAVIE It could be claimed that this decline in religion is merely proof that religion is declining or that it has become deinstitutionalised or disembedded

Question 5

Rite of passage

Answer 5

• Baptism/marriage = decreasing
• 1971 = 60% of marriages were in the Church compared to 30% in 2012
• Infant baptisms have also fallen

Question 6

A03 Rite of passage

Answer 6

• DAVIE Vicarious religion shows that we still use religion for rites of passage
• BIBBIE 80% of Canadians still use the church for rites of passage

Question 7

Bogus baptism

Answer 7

• Infant baptisms have declined but older children baptisms have increased
• Faith schools schools having this as a part of their admissions process
• “Entry ticket” to a good school

Question 8

Religious affiliation today

Answer 8

• 1983-2014 those identify as having no religion rose from 1/3 to 1/2
• Same period = those identifying as Christian fell
• Catholics increased due to East European immigration
• Religiois belief = significant decline

Question 9

Religious functions being replaced by the state

Answer 9

• A social institution acts as a mechanism which provides key services for effective functioning within a nation state
• For example, up until the mid-19th century churches provided education, before being replaced by Compulsory Education Act 1880
• Clergy = decreased from 45000 to 34000 even when the population has doubled
• Ageing workforce = 12% under 40

Question 10

Structural differentiation

Answer 10

PARSONS:
- The state has become separated from religion = calls into question religious importance as to how society functions
- There has been a disengagement of religion
- For example, during pre-modern times, religion served a purpose as to how the state functioned (welfare, education, and the law)
- Religion has become privatised
- Conform to the law of the state

Question 11

Explanations behind secularisation

Answer 11

1. A switch in narrative
2. MAX WEBER and rationalisation - the “enchanted” garden
3. A technological worldview - BRUCE
4. Social and cultual diversity
5. Religious diveristy - BERGER

Question 12

A switch in narrative

Answer 12

• Pre-modernity = religion served a purpose as existence was fatalistic, required when dealing with alienation (ALTHUSSER/LENIN)
• Modernity = religious influence began to decline as there was a shift towards grand narratives/social equality (politics, science, and technology)
• Post-modernity = collapse of grand narratives and re-creation of alternate religious and spiritual types DRANE 2000 NRM’S
• LYOTARD = post-modern condition has caused a range of diversity in terms of belief systems, whether religion has changed or society is just becoming more secular

Question 13

MAX WEBER and rationalisation - the “enchanted” garden

Answer 13

• Claims western society = rationalised over the last few centuries, and this began in the 16th century by Martin Luther (a Protestant religious figure)
• Medieval view of the world during these centuries saw Europe as being dominated by supernatural beings and spirits.
• For example humans perceived these powers as being influential in terms of the way that the world was around them:
  a) Good Harvest
  b) Protection against disease

Question 14

Difference between enchantment and disenchantment

Answer 14

• Enchantment: referred to the fact that the spirits were believed to run the world and were in effect in charge of human existence = Interventionism
• Disenchantment: instead of seeing supernatural beings and spirits as ‘Interventionist’ and responsible for the world around humans, they become ‘transcendent’ = ‘man’ and do not exist on the earth
• Human beings started to see such powers as already having had decided how the world works and this was like a watchmaker = designed the world and set it in motion, humans simply need to understand it, and to do so turned to reason, science and technology
• Empirical = belief that something can be proved factually (causes secularisation)

Question 15

A technological worldview

Answer 15

• BRUCE
• When the beliefs surrounding disenchantment started to replace religion, the ‘technological view of the world’ also started to become dominant
• Technology is factually provable and is linked to science
• For example if a plane crashes , it is generally not regarded to be the work of evil spirits or demons but it is more likely to be considered to be because of a technological or a scientific failing

Question 16

A03 A technological worldview

Answer 16

• BRUCE = humans still turn to religion when for instance science cannot provide us with the answer, an incurable disease
  -This can then be linked to when life is in crisis
  -A postmodern world which is dominated by technology and a growth in rational belief systems = growth in secularisation

Question 17

Social and cultural diversity

Answer 17

• Decline of community = move from preindustrial to industrial society brought about a significant decline in close knit communities = decline of religion in society
• WILSON claims that religion during preindustrial societies was part of a collective consciousness (DURKHEIM) and that individuals were brought up with religion, as they were part of a community
• Sense of community = lost with the shift when society moved from Agrarian to Industrialised ways of living = religion started to lose its significance, for example individuals were no longer brought up with religion as part of their primary socialisation
• ‘Cultural Amnesia’ argument as put forward by HERVIEU LEGER
• Industrialisation = BRUCE undermines religion
• Plausability = nobody is certain what religion is correct (lots of choice) = anomie

Question 18

A03 Social and cultural diversity

Answer 18

• Religion changed = more socially diverse with the shift to modernity
• For example the Methodist church was formed as a denomination = society may indeed not be becoming secular, instead religion is adapting/changing.

Question 19

A03 Social diversity argument for causing secularisation

Answer 19

• ALDRIDGE = still live in global communities where religion still has the power to unite everyone together:
  a) Abrahamic Religions are global religions and are united together through a totem
  b) Some religions are practiced through imagined communities, through the electronic church (televangelism) (and the adapting of Hinduism to postmodernity)
  c) Some religions can adapt to their countries which may be very rural = ‘Tiger Economies’ and ‘Pentecostalism’ in rural Latin America

Question 20

Religious diversity

Answer 20

• BERGER
• Sacred canopy = medieval era, Catholic Church has a monopoly of truth. Everyone lived under the same sacred canopy and this was the only correct way to live
• Following the Protestant Reformation schisms occured (S&B)
• Secularisation caused by pluralism and personal choice
• Plausability of structure = diversity undermines religions plausability and there is a crisis of credibility
• When there are alternate religions it is hard to know which one to choose = question them all

Question 21

A03 BRUCE

Answer 21

• Concepts of cultural defence and transition = evidence of secularisation
• BERGER argues diversity and choice stimulates participation in religion
• BECKFORD opposing views can strengthen a religious groups commitment

Question 22

Secularisation in America

Answer 22

• WILSON = 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays but was more of an “American way of life”

Question 23

3 reasons America is becoming secular

Answer 23

• Declining church attendance
• Secularisation from within
• Religious diveristy

Question 24

Declining church attendance

Answer 24

• BRUCE
• 40% of Americans were attending church but research found this doesnt actually match = masked a decline in attendance
• HADAWAY ET AL evidence that people over-exaggerate the percentage of churchgoers

Question 25

Secularisation from within

Answer 25

• BRUCE
• Traditional religion has declined and America has become “psychologised” and turned to a form of therapy which has enabled it to fit into a secular society so religion has stayed popular by becoming less religious

Question 26

Religious diversity

Answer 26

• BRUCE
• Growth of religious diversity = secularisation
• Practical relativism = acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold beliefs different from your own
• Erosion of absolutism = we live in a society where many people hold different views that are different to our own which undermines our assumption that our views are true

Question 27

A03 Criticising secularisation theory

Answer 27

• Religion is not declining but simply changing its form
• Secularisation theory is one-sided, it focuses on decline and ignores religious
  revivals and growth of new religions
• Evidence of falling church attendance ignores people who believe but do not go to church – ‘believing without belonging’
• Religion may have declined in Europe but not globally = secularisation is not universal
• The past was not a golden age of faith from which we have declined and the future will not be an age of atheism
• Religious diversity increases participation because it offers choice = there is no overall downward trend
• Religious trends point in different directions and people make use of religion in different ways