Secularisation Flashcards
(22 cards)
What percentage of the adult population attend church on sundays in 1998?
Voas and Crockett-40%
What is secularisation?
Wilson argues it is the process in which religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance
What are the trends in church attendance today?
2020- Only 4% of the adult population attend church on sundays
-Decline in church weddings
-decline in infant baptisms but rise in ‘bogus baptisms’ as it is used as an entry ticket to get into good schools (faith schools)
What are the trends in religious affiliation today?
-Rise in those who have no religion (over 1/2)
-Decline in those identifying as christian but slight increase in catholicism due to Eastern Europe immigration
-Rise in non-christian religions due to immigration and their high birth rates
what are the trends in religious belief?
80 year surveys have dound a significant decline in belief in Jesus as the son of God as well as Christian teachings about the afterlife and Bible
What are the trends in religious institutions
-Religion institutions now have less influence on public life, now confined to the public sphere
-State has taken over many of the functions the church used to do e.g church no longer provides education, even faith schools must conform to states regulations
-The number of clergy members is decreasing> day to day influence of churches is reduced
What does Bruce predict by 2030
The methodist church will fold
-The church of England will merely be a voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property
How does Weber explain secularisation?
Rationalisation; rational ways of thinking replace religious ones
-The protestant reformation started a process of rationalisation by undermining the previous religious worldview in middle ages and replacing it with a more rational view
What was the medieval worldview before the protestant reformation
-saw the world as a magical ‘enchanted garden’.
-God and other spiritual beings were present and active in this world and could be influenced by humans using prayers, spells and fasts
What was the worldview after the reformation?
The world became disenchanted
-God was seen as transcendent so didn’t interfere with the world
-Any events could thus be explained as the work of natural forces
-Religious explanations were no longer needed to explain everyday life
How does Bruce explain secularisation?
Due to the growth of a ‘technological worldview’ instead of religious explanations due to advancements in technology
-e.g when a plane crashes we do not explain it as due to evil forces but instead look for scientific/technological explanations
-Religion only used when technology is least effective e.g incurable illness
-So less need religious explanations
How does Parsons explain secularisation?
Due to structural differentation
-The functions of religion have been taken over by other institutions
-This leads to disengagement as church has become disconnected from wider society
-Also leads to privatisation> religion is now confined to the home> traditional rituals and symbols lose meaning
How can social and cultural diversity explain secularisation?
Wilson- pre-industrialisation communities had shared rituals that integrated them, religion then lost its basis in stable communities> reliigon lost its hold over individuals
Bruce-industrialisation broke tight kit communities> loose knit communities with diverse beliefs and values due to geographical & social mobility
- Rise in individualism as well as being exposed to so many different lifestyles/cultures decreases the plausibility of your own> religious decline
How can the idea that a decline in community caused a decline in religion be criticised?
Globalisation can create religious communities online
How can Religious diversity lead to a decline in religion?
Berger
-The Catholic church in the middle ages held the absolute truth> everyone lived under a sacred canapoy of beliefs increasing plausability
-Protestant reformation led to a further increase in variety of religious organisations
-Berger argues this religious diversity undermines the plausability structure
-Alternative versions allow us to question all of them> no absolute certainty
What two counter trends that go against secularisation does Bruce identify?
Cultural defence; Religion is used to defend a national/ethnic group from external force e.g Catholicism in Poland and Islamic revolution in Iran
-Cultural transition; religion provides support/ sense of community for migrants to a different country/culture
Why does Bruce argue that religion survives in situations where cultural defence and cultural transition is used?
-Religion is used as a sense of group identity
-However, this doesnt demonstate the intensity of faith as often once threat has gone religious participation declines e.g Poland
What are the stats on religious attendance in the USa?
45% of Americans attended church on a Sunday
-However, this was seen more as an ‘American way of life’ rather than showing religious beliefs (WIlson
What did Hadaway study
Chuch attendance rates in America
-Found that church attendance was exaggerated in polls and church attendance in USA is actually declining
-Pps lied on polls to be socially desireable/ as it is a normative response
What does Bruce argue about secularisation in the USA
Secularisation from within
-Christianity in America has lost its traditional beliefs and has instead became ‘psychologised’
-Christianity has become less religious in order to stay popular in a secular society
What is meant by practical reletavism?
A growing trend in American Christians in which they accept the idea others hold different beliefs to them
-Lynd and Lynd found that only 41% of christians in 1977 believed that ;Christianity is the one true religion’ vs 94% in 1924
-Thus there has been an ‘erosion of absolutism’
How can secularisation theory be criticised?
-religion is not declining but changing
-Eurocentric as in other countries religiosity is still high
