Topic 6 - Religion, Renewal, and Choice

Question 1

2 alternatives to secularisation theory

Answer 1

1) Theories of late modernity and postmodernity - Religion is not declining but changing as socity develops
2) Religious market theory - Secularisation is only one stage of a constant cycle of secularisation, revival, renewal

Question 2

From obligation to consumption

Answer 2

• DAVIE argues that in today’s late modern society religion has shifted away from obligation to consumption and choice
• In the past the Church has the power to “oblige” people to attend Church and behave/think in certain ways
• Religion no longer has the power as it is no longer inherited/imposed, a matter of choice

Question 3

Believing without belonging

Answer 3

• DAVIE claims that religion is not declining but rather it is taking a different form within society, it is becoming more privatised
• People are reluctant to belong to organisations generally, including the Church, still hold religious beliefs “believing without belonging”

Question 4

Vicarious religion: The spiritual health service

Answer 4

• DAVIE = secularisation is not effecting society as much as individuals believe it is
• “Vicarious Religion”, whereby professional clergymen such as priests practive religion on behalf of individuak agents
• In the UK and Nothern Europe = church attendance is low yet people still identify with churches
• Europe: churches seen as “Spiritual Health Service” like the NHS that is there for everyone when they need it (including rites of passage)

Question 5

DAVIE Analysis

Answer 5

• Challenges secularisation theory for assuming modernism affects society in the same way, she argues there are multiple modernites

Question 6

Neither believing or belonging

Answer 6

• VOAS AND CROCKETT claim that evidence shows both Church attendance and belief in God are declining
• BRUCE argues if they are not willing to invest time in going to Church then this just reflects the decline in beliefs
• DAY found that 72% of people identified in the Census as Christian, yet when interviewed she found very few mentioned God or Christianity instead associating with being Christian was a way to belong to a “White ethnic” group - a non-religious marker of national/ethnic identity

Question 7

Spiritual shopping

Answer 7

• LEGER agrees with DAVIE that belief in terms of attending the institution is significantly in decline
• Church attendance used to be a form of a collective consciousness as it provided individuals in society ith a similar set of beliefs (DURKHEIM), and that all individuals were socialised with religion in primary socialisation
• HERVIEU LEGER now claims that this collective identity is being lost = Cultural amnesia

Question 8

A03 Spiritual shopping

Answer 8

• BELLAH Civil religion

Question 9

Shopping for belief systems

Answer 9

• Get what we need out of religion, and there is no singular ‘traditional’ way to believe, we look at the purpose that religion provides us with
• HERVIEU LEGER argues two new religious types emerge:
  a) Pilgrims: follow an individual path in terms of spirituality and religion, e.g., NAM
  b) Converts: agents join religion for a sense of belonging, e.g., cultural transition - turn to religion due to unfamiliarity of the country they are in

Question 10

Postmodern religion

Answer 10

• LYON religion changed during modernity/postmodernity
• LYON: religion has become institutionalised in 3 ways
  1) Globalisation
  2) The growth of media and communication
  3) The growth of consumerism

Question 11

1) Globalisation

Answer 11

• Growing interconnectedness of societies = increase in movements of ideas and beliefs
• Central role of media and information technology = gives access to beliefs of previously remotes place and religions
• Religious ideas = disembedded and lifted out of physical churches e.g., electronic church
• Religion = deinstitutionalised (detached from religious institutions)

Question 12

2) The growth of media and communication

Answer 12

HELLAND:
- Religion online: top-down communication (religions use internet to address followers/attract coverts) with no dialogue between parties (electronic version)
- Online religion: cyber religion that may not exist outside of the internet (create non-hierarchal relationships/sense of community and visit virtual worship/meditation spaces)

Question 13

A03 2) The growth of media and communication

Answer 13

• HOOVER rather than being a radical alternative to religion people use online religion to supplement church-based activities

Question 14

3) The growth of consumerism

Answer 14

• Identities constructed through what we consume
• LYON individuals ‘Pick and Mix’ elements of different faiths to suit their own needs (own requirements)
• LYON religion is now very individual = individualised religion
• LYON religion = sphere of consumerism, conscious decisions about what part of religion we follow
• AMMERMAN one family attended church on a Sunday at a Methodist church, bereavement counselling at a Baptist church, and day care at another church.

Question 15

The New Age

Answer 15

• LYON NAMs emerging
• Rejects obligation/obedience = less formal committment than traditional religion = this worldly benefits

Question 16

Re-enchantment of the World

Answer 16

• LYON growing vitality of non-traditional religion
• LYON critical of secularisation

Question 17

Has a spiritual revolution taken place?

Answer 17

• HEELAS and WOODHEAD (Kendal study):
  Looked at 2 groups:
• The congregational domain: traditional and evangelical Christianity
• The holistic milieu: spirituality and new age
  Found:
• 7.9% of the population attended church in a typical week
• 1.6% took part in activities of the holistic milieu
• Congregational domain = traditional churches were losing support while evangelical were holding their own
• Whilst fewer were involved in the holistic milieu = steadily growing in numbers
  3 reasons for this:
  1) Change in todays culture
  2) Traditional religions demand duty
  3) Evangelical churches are more successful

Question 18

A03 The New Age

Answer 18

• Problem of scale: NAMs have to be on a much larger scale to compensate the loss of traditional religion
• Socialisation of the next generation: must be passed down to next generation
• Weak commitment
• Structural weakness

Question 19

Society becoming less religious

Answer 19

• STARK and BAINBRIDGE = secularisation becoming eurocentric (other countries not suffering from a decline, e.g., USA)

Question 20

Religious market theory

Answer 20

• People are naturally religious and religion meets human needs (ultimate questions YINGER)

Question 21

What does religious market theory show us

Answer 21

• Religion = compensator
  Cycle of:
  a) Religious decline
  b) Revival
  c) Renewal
• S&B turn to religion as a matter of choice and changes accoridng to need

Question 22

Supply led religion

Answer 22

• S&B choice to become religious influenced by the country we live in
• The decline of religion is not a universal trend but varies from country to country

Question 23

Supply led religion, e.g.,

Answer 23

• HADDEN and SHUPE a growth in televangalism in the US has allowed evangelicalism to thrive
• Use post-modern technologies such as electronic church which encourages other organisations to compete for memebers

Question 24

A03 Religious market theory

Answer 24

• BRUCE supply and competition lead to demand (evidence shows that religion is declining in both Europe and America)
• BRUCE = STARK AND BAINBRIDGE misrepresent secularisation theory (does not claim a ‘golden age’ of religion or that it will end but that religion is in a long term decline)
• BECKFORD = unsociological because it fails to answer the questions as to why we choose to follow a religion (emphasises how religious diversity encourages more religion)

Question 25

Existential security theory

Answer 25

• NORRIS and INGLEHART reject religious market theory and believe it only applies to America (small amount of evidence suggesting supply leads to demand in other countries)
• Existential Security Theory disregards the fact that religion is about competition and the more options we have the more religious we become

Question 26

Existential security theory (poor societies)

Answer 26

• People living in povert face risk, e.g., famine, disease
• Low levels of existential security = sacred canopy
  A03 links to LENIN spiritual gin

Question 27

Existential security theory (rich societies)

Answer 27

• Less risk to higher levels of existential security = turn to religion (NRM/NAM to deal with pressures of consumerist world)
• Demand for religion is not constnat but varies between societies
• A03 Global population undermines secularisation

Question 28

Welfare and existential security

Answer 28

• NORRIS and INGLEHART counties that spend less on welfare systems more likely to have lower levels of existential security = turn to religion
• America generally more religious than the UK

Question 29

the state welfare and religiousity

Answer 29

• GILL and LUNDEGAARDE argue the more a contry spend on welfare the less religous they are
• YINGER people still turn to religion for security to answer ultimate questions

Question 30

A03 Existential security theory

Answer 30

• VASQUES accepts N and I offer a good explanation but…
• They only use quantitative data about income levels
• Only focus on the negative response