2.1.3 Beliefs in society: Secularisation

Question 1

Secularisation in Britain

What age did Crockett call the ‘golden age’ of religiousity and what percentage of the population did he estimate attended church on sundays at that time?

Answer 1

Crockett calls the 19th century the ‘golden age’ of religiousity as 40% of the population attended church on sundays.

Question 2

Secularisation in Britain

What are four signs of secularisation in Britain?

Answer 2

• Decrease in the proportion of the population attending church.
• An increase in the average age of churchgoers.
• Greater religious diversity.
• Fewer people having religious ceremonies (e.g weddings and funerals)

Question 3

Secularisation in Britain

What percentage of the adult population attended church on sundays in 2020 identified by Wilson?

Answer 3

4%

Question 4

Secularisation in Britain

By what proportion did the number of weddings in catholic churches fall by between 1965 and 2011?

Answer 4

The number of weddings in Catholic
churches fell by 75% between 1965 and 2011.

Question 5

Explanations of secularisation

What does Weber argue secularisation has been caused by?

Answer 5

• ## Rationalisation - a process in which rational and logical ways of thinking replace religious ones.

Question 6

Explanations of secularisation

What impact did the 16th century Protestant Reformation have on rationalisation?

Answer 6

• The medieval Catholic worldview saw the world as an ‘enchanted garden’ in which God and angels used their supernatural powers to influence events.
• The Protestant Reformation bought about the view that God was transendent, existing above and outside the world.

Question 7

Explanations of secularisation

What is disenchantment?

Answer 7

• The Protestant reformation bought the belief that God existed outside the world watching, rather then in the world intervening like the medieval Catholic belief.
• This bought disenchantment and led people to seek rational reasons for events.

Question 8

Explanations of secularisation

How does Bruce describe the worldview that has replaced the religious worldview?

Answer 8

• Bruce describes a tecnological world view in which science and technology are used to seek explanations.

Question 9

Explanations of secularisation

What is structural differentiation, and which theorist defines it?

Answer 9

• Parsons describes structural differentiation as when many specialised institutions develop to carry out different functions previously performed by a single institution. e.g church.
• Happens as a result of industrialisation.

Question 10

Explanations of secularisation

How does Bruce argue religion has been affected by structural differentiation?

Answer 10

• Sees religion as becoming seperate from wider society and privatised into the home and family.
• Religion becomes a personal belief.

Question 11

Explanations of secularisation

What impact does Wilson argue industrialisation has on religion?

Answer 11

• Industrialiation destroys the stable, local communities that provides religion’s base.

Question 12

Explanations of secularisation

What are Aldridge’s criticisms that religion has lost community base due to industrialisation?

Answer 12

• A community doesn’t have to be local, religion can be a shared source of identity on a worldwide scale.

Question 13

Explanations of secularisation

What does Berger argue is a cause for secularisation?

Answer 13

• Religious diversity.
• Undermines relgion’s ‘plausibility structure’ (its believability) as it gives alternatvie versions of the truth leading people to question all of them.

Question 14

Explanations of secularisation

What are the two counter-trends Bruce identifies to contradice secularisation theory?

Answer 14

• cultural defence - religion provides a focus for the defence of national or ethnice groups in an identity struggle against an external force.
• cultural tradition - Religion provides a sense of community for ethnic groups living in a different country and culture.

Question 15

Explanations of secularisation

What are the four main explanations for secularisation?

Answer 15

1. Weber’s rationalisation theory.
2. Parsons’ structural differentiation theory.
3. Wilson’s social diversity theory.
4. Berger’s religious diversity theory.

Question 16

Secularisation in the USA

Why does Wilson argue religion is becoming superficial?

Answer 16

• 45% of Americans attend church but this is more of an expression of the ‘American way of life’ then of religious beliefs, making religion in the USA superficial and America more secular, according to Wilson.

Question 17

Secularisation in the USA

What are Bruce’s three sources for America becoming increasingly secular?

Answer 17

• Declining church attendance.
• Secularisation from within.
• Religious diversity and relativism.

Question 18

Secularisation in the USA

What does Hadaway argue about official statistics on church attendance?

Answer 18

• Argues that there is an increasing ‘attendance gap’ between those who claim to go to church and the church’s statistics on number attending on sunday mornings.

Question 19

Secularisation in the USA

What percentage of Americans go to church on a sunday according to opinion polls?

Answer 19

40%

Question 20

Secularisation in the USA

What percentage does Hadaway argue statistics on church attendance are exaggerated by?

Answer 20

83%

Question 21

Secularisation in the USA

Why does Bruce argue the attendance gap exists?

Answer 21

• Exaggeration masks actual statistics on attending due to it still being seen as socially desirable to attend church, so people say they do even if they don’t.

Question 22

Secularisation in the USA

How does Bruce argue that there is secularisation from within in churches?

Answer 22

• Emphasis on glorifying God has decreased and religion has become ‘psycologised’ into a form of therapy.
• Religion has remained popular by becoming less religious and its purposed changed from seeking salvation to seeking personal improvement.

Question 23

Secularisation in the USA

What is Bruce’s ‘practical relativism’?

Answer 23

accepting that others are entitled to hold beliefs different to one’s own.

Question 24

Secularisation in the USA

What did Lynd and Lynd’s study find?

Answer 24

• In 1924, 94% of churchgoing young people agreed that ‘Christianity is the one true religion’.
• However, by 1977, only 41% agreed.

Question 25

Secularisation in the USA

What is the counterpart to practical relativism?

Answer 25

• the ‘erosion of absolutism’
• living in a society where so many people hold views that are so different to ours undermines the assumption that our views are absolutely true.

Question 26

Secularisation in the USA

What are some criticisms to the belief that America is becoming increasingly secular?

(4)

Answer 26

• religion is not declining but changing in its form.
• It doesn’t count people who believe but don’t go to church (believe without belonging)
• Hasn’t declined globally.
• Increasing choice increases participation.