Secularisation

Question 1

Give four changes to religion in the UK since 1851.

Answer 1

• Decline in proportion of the population going to church or belonging to one.
• Increase in average age of churchgoers.
• Fewer baptisms and church weddings.
• Greater diversity, including more non-Christian religions.

Question 2

Define secularisation.

Answer 2

Wilson: ‘ The process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance.’

Question 3

Explain how church attendance today shows that Britain has become a secular society.

Answer 3

2015: 5% of adult pop. attended church on Sundays.
1960: Sunday attendance - 1.6 mil.
2013: Under 0.8 mil.
1971: 60% weddings in church.
2012: 30% weddings in church.

Question 4

Explain how religious affiliation today shows that Britain has become a secular society.

Answer 4

• Between 1983 & 2014, the percentage of adults without a religion rose from 1/3 to 1/2 (roughly).
• Same period: Those identifying as Christian fell by 1/3. Anglicans (Church of England members) more than halved.

Question 5

Explain how religious belief today shows that Britain has become a secular society.

Answer 5

Surveys: 
Significant decline:
- Belief in a personal God
- Jesus as the son of God
- Christian teachings about afterlife & Bible.

Question 6

Explain how religious institutions today show that Britain has become a secular society.

Answer 6

Church has some influence on public life, (e.g 26 CoE bishops sit in the House of Lords, where they have some influence in lawmaking) but it’s declined significantly since the 19th century.

Religion has become privatised e.g education provided by the state not church since mid-19th century + decline in faith schools.

Question 7

How has modernisation affected religious belief?

Answer 7

The decline of tradition and its replacement with rational and scientific ways of thinking tends to undermine religion.

Question 8

What is the effect of industrialisation on small communities?

Answer 8

Leads to the break up of small communities that were held together by common religious beliefs.

Question 9

What is the impact of religious diversity on religious institutions and on religious beliefs?

Answer 9

Secularisation theorists argue it has undermined both the authority of religious institutions and the credibility of religious beliefs.

Question 10

Define rationalisation.

Answer 10

The process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones.

Question 11

Briefly outline the medieval Catholic worldview.

Answer 11

• World: ‘Enchanted garden.’
• God & other spiritual beings/forces e.g angels, Satan etc. were believed to be present on Earth changing events through their supernatural powers & miraculous interventions in it.
• Humans could try to influence these beings/forces by magical means (prayers, spells, fasts, charms etc.) to ensure a good harvest, protect against disease etc.

Question 12

How did the Protestant worldview differ from that of Catholicism?

Answer 12

Catholics saw supernatural forces as governing natural disasters (e.g plane crash) so they used their religion to find answers. Protestants believe that God created Earth but then left it to its own devices, therefore they believe in explaining things scientifically and rationally because the supernatural doesn’t intervene.

Question 13

What does Weber mean by the ‘disenchantment’ of the world?

Answer 13

Change from religious explanations to scientific and technological ones.

Question 14

How did the Protestant Reformation lead to the ‘disenchantment’ of the world?

Answer 14

Squeezes out magical + religious ways of thinking + starts the rationalisation process that leads to the domination of rational mode of thought enabling science to thrive.

Question 15

Using an example, briefly explain what Bruce means by the technological worldview?

Answer 15

When a plane crashes with the loss of many lives, we’re unlikely to regard it as the work of evil spirits or God’s punishment of the wicked. Instead, we look for scientific + technological explanations.

Question 16

What is the impact of scientific knowledge on people’s attitude towards religion?

Answer 16

Although it doesn’t challenge religion directly, it’s greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations. It doesn’t make people atheists, but the worldview encourages results in people taking religious less seriously.

Question 17

Define structural differentiation.

Answer 17

Parsons: ‘A process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society.’

Question 18

Briefly outline what is meant by disengagement. Give two examples.

Answer 18

Parsons:

• Structural differentiation —> disengagement of religion.
• Functions are transferred to other institutions (e.g the state) + becomes disconnected from wider society.

Example:
- Church loses influence it once had on education, social welfare + the law.

Question 19

According to Bruce, in what sense has religion become privatised?

Answer 19

• Confined to the private sphere of the home and family. - Religious beliefs: largely a matter of personal choice.
• Religious institutions have lost much of their influence on wider society.

Question 20

Briefly outline how the decline of community leads to a decline in religion.

Answer 20

Wilson:

• Pre-industrial communities: Shared values expressed through collective rituals that integrated individuals + regulated behaviour.
• However: When religion lost its basis in stable local communities, it lost its vitality + hold over individuals.

Question 21

Briefly outline how industrialisation leads to a decline in religion.

Answer 21

Bruce:

• Industrialisation: Undermines consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together.
• Small close-knit rural communities: give way to large loose-knit urban communities with diverse beliefs + values.
• Social + geographical mobility: breaks up communities but brings people together from many different backgrounds increasing diversity.

Question 22

Briefly outline how diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles leads to a decline in religion.

Answer 22

Bruce:

• Argues: plausibility of beliefs is undermined by alternatives + individualism (plausibility of religion depends on existence of a practising community of believers).
• In the absence of a practising religious community that functions on a day-to-day basis, both religious belief + practise tend to decline.

Question 23

Give three criticisms of the view that the decline of community causes the decline of religion.

Answer 23

The view that the decline of community causes the decline of religion has been criticised (Aldridge: a community doesn’t have to be in a particular area):

• Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale. This is true of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities for example.
• Some religious communities are ‘imagined communities’ that interact through the use of global media.
• Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in ‘impersonal’ urban areas.

Question 24

What is meant by the ‘sacred canopy’?

Answer 24

Set of beliefs shared by all. Gave these beliefs greater plausibility because they had no challengers and the Church’s version of the truth was unquestioned.

Question 25

According to Berger, how did the Protestant Reformation lead to religious diversity?

Answer 25

Since the reformation, the number + variety of religious organisations has continued to grow, each with a different version of the truth.

Question 26

Briefly explain how religious diversity creates a crisis of credibility for religion.

Answer 26

• Diversity undermines religions ‘plausibility structure’ - the reasons why people find it believable.
• Alternative versions of religion to choose leads to people questioning all religions.
• This erodes certainties of traditional religion.

Question 27

What is cultural defence?

Answer 27

Where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external force (e.g a hostile foreign power).
Examples:
- Popularity of Catholicism in Poland before fall communism
- Resurgence of Islam before the revolution in Iran (1979).

Question 28

What is cultural transition?

Answer 28

• Where religion provides support + a sense of community for ethnic groups (migrants + culture).
• Herberg describes this in his study of religion & immigration to the USA.
• Religion has performed similar functions for Irish, African Caribbean, Muslim, Hindu + other migrants to the UK.

Question 29

According to Bruce, why does religion survive in situations of cultural defence and cultural transition?

Answer 29

It’s a focus for group identity. Thus these examples don’t disprove secularisation, but show that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural.

Question 30

Briefly outline two criticisms of secularisation theory.

Answer 30

Berger (1999):

• Changed his views + now argues diversity & choice stimulate interest + participation in religion.
• Example: Growth of evangelicalism (Latin America) & the New Christian Right (USA) point to the continuing vitality of religion, not its decline.

Beckford (2003):

• Agrees with idea that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs, but this isn’t inevitable.
• Opposing views: Can strengthen a religious groups commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them.

Question 31

According to Wilson, why is America a secular society despite relatively high church attendance?

Answer 31

• 1962: 45% of America attended church on Sundays.
• Argued: churchgoing in America was ‘the American way of life’ rather than deeply held religious beliefs.
• Claimed: America was a secular society, not because people had abandoned churches, but because religion had become superficial.

Question 32

How does Hadaway’s research question the statistics for church attendance?

Answer 32

Found figure didn’t match the churches’ own attendance stats. If 40% of Americans were going to church, the churches would be full, but they weren’t.

Question 33

What reasons does Bruce suggest for the difference in actual and reported church attendance?

Answer 33

It’s still seen as desirable or normative to go to church, so people who’ve stopped going will still say they attend if asked in a survey.

Question 34

Briefly explain what Bruce means by secularisation from within.

Answer 34

• Emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs & glorifying God has declined + religion in America has become ‘psychologised’ or turned into a form of therapy.
• American religion has remained popular by becoming less religious.

Question 35

Briefly explain what Bruce means by practical relativism.

Answer 35

Acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold beliefs that are different to our own.

Question 36

Briefly explain the erosion of absolutism.

Answer 36

We now live in a society where many people hold views that are completely different to ours, which undermines our assumption that our own views are absolutely true.

Question 37

Briefly outline four criticisms of secularisation theory.

Answer 37

• Theory is one-sided. Focus: decline. Ignores: religious revivals + growth of new religions
• Evidence of falling church attendance ignore people who believe but don’t go to church.
• Religion isn’t declining but simply changing its form.
• Religion may have declined in Europe but not globally, so secularisation isn’t universal.