decline in religious practice

Question 1

list the reasons for a decline in religious practice

Answer 1

-declining membership in all major christian denominations
-declining attendance
-religious ceremonies
-myth of believing without belonging
-myth of resacralization

Question 2

list the reasons against a decline in religious practice

Answer 2

-belonging without believing
-believing without belonging
-not all denominations and faiths are declining

Question 3

(FOR)
explain what is meant by declining membership in all major christian denominations

Answer 3

-older followers aren’t being replaced by younger recruits

Question 4

(FOR)
explain what is meant by declining attendance

Answer 4

-church attendance on sundays was 40% in 1851, 2% in 2007
-2/3 of the population attended a religious service once a year or less (never)

Question 5

(FOR)
explain what is meant by the myth of believing without belonging

Answer 5

-Voas + Crockett - in britain and many other countries, both believing and belonging are falling

Question 6

(FOR)
explain what is meant by the myth of resacralization

Answer 6

-its hard to see NRM’s as resacralization because the numbers are so small; any growth is insignificant compared to the losses
-Bruce - influence of such groups is marginal
-Wilson - sects are last outposts of religion in a secular society (so the only way religion will survive is by isolating itself)
-Glendinning + Bruce - used evidence from the Kendall project, fewer than 1/50 people from the area were engaged in new age activities at least once a week

Question 7

(AGAINST)
explain what is meant by belonging without believing

Answer 7

-attending religious services doesn’t equal a belief in god, so declining church attendance may not mean a decline in belief

Question 8

(AGAINST)
explain what is meant by believing without belonging

Answer 8

-Bellah - reorientation from public participation to private worship
-Dane - ‘unchurched’
-Voas - casual loyalty, fuzzy fidelity = neither religious church goers or non-religious, fuzzy faithful = those who hold religious beliefs without joining traditional religions

Question 9

(AGAINST)
explain what is meant by ‘not all denominations and faiths are declining’

Answer 9

-christian research statistics 2010 - decline of people attending worship during later years of the last century has become stable
-many people still use religious ceremonies, 90% of funerals involve some sort of religious ceremony