Topic 3 -Secularisation Flashcards
What statistics did Wilson find about church attendance today ?
In 2015, Wilson found that about 5% of the adult proportion attended church on Sundays . Churchgoing in Britain has more than halved since Wilson’s research. For example , Sunday attendance in Church of England fell from 1.6 million in 1960 , to under 0.8 million in 2013
What did the English church census show about church attendance ?
The English church census found that attendances at large organisations such as the Church of England have declined more than small organisations.
However , the growth of these small organisations has not made up for the decline of the small ones , so the overall trend is still on a decline
What has happened to the number of catholic baptisms ?
Similarly , infant baptisms have fallen steadily , the number of catholic baptisms today is under half of those in 1964
What kind of baptisms are on the rise and why ?
Bogus baptisms - while infant baptisms have declined , those of older children have increased in recent years . Research indicates that this is because many faith schools , which tend to be high performing schools , will only take baptised children . Baptism thus becomes an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of Christian commitment
What is meant by Religious affiliation ?
Religious Affiliation refers to their membership of or identification with a religion
Religious affiliation - what has happened to the number of Christian’s ?
Those identifying as Christian has fell by a third , the fall was sharpest for Anglicans (Church of England members) who’s numbers more than halved
Evidence about religious beliefs today ?
-Evidence about religious beliefs from 80 years of survey research show that religious belief is declining , along with the decline in the church attendance and membership
-For example , surveys show a significant decline in a belief in a personal God , in Jesus as the son of God and in the Christian teachings about the afterlife and the Bible
What is evidence that the influence of religion as a social institution has declined ?
For example , until the mid 19th century , the churches provided education but since then it has been provided mainly by the state
Although there is a legal requirement for schools to provide a daily act of collective worship of a “broadly Christian character” , a BBC survey in 2005 found that over half the secondary schools failed to comply with this
What is another measure of the institutional weakness of religion (churches) ?
-One measure of the institutional weakness of the churches is the number of clergy . -During the 20th century , this fell from 45,000 to 34,000 . The number of catholic priests fell by a third between 1965 and 2011
-the clergy are also an ageing workforce , only 12% of the Anglican clergy are under 40
-A lack of clergy means that the day to day influence of churches is reduced
What does Bruce conclude if secularisation continues ?
Bruce predicts that if current trends continue , the Methodist church Will fold around 2030 and by then the Church of England will be a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property
How does Weber’s idea of rationalisation help to explain secularisation , include what is meant by rationalisation ?
-Rationalisation refers to the process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones
-Sociologists argue that western society has undergone a process of rationalisation in the last few centuries
-Weber argues that the Protestant reformation begun by martin Luther started a process of rationalisation
-this process undermined the religious worldview of the Middle Ages and replaced it with the rational scientific outlook found in modern society
How does Weber use the term disenchantment in his explanation of rationalisation as an explanation of secularisation ?
-in weber’s view , the Protestant reformation begins the disenchantment of the world as it squeezes out the magical and religious ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process which enables science to thrive , therefore disenchantment undermines the religious worldview
How does Bruce’s idea of a technological worldview act as an explanation for secularisation ?
-Bruce argues that the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen
-For example , when a plane crashes with the loss of many lives , we are unlikely to regard it as the work of the evil spirts or God’s punishment of the Wicked but we now look for scientific and technological explanations
-A technological worldview therefore leaves little room for religious explanations in everyday life , where religion only survives if technology is least effective such as we may pray if we are suffering from an illness which has no scientific medicine to cure it
How does Parsons use the idea of structural differentiation to explain secularisation , include what is meant by structural differentiation ?
-structural differentiation is defined by parsons as a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of an industrial society . Separate specialised institutions develop to carry out functions that were previously performed by a single institution.
-Parsons sees this as having happened to religion - due to industrialisation religion has become a smaller and more specialised institution
Explanation of secularisation- what does Parsons believe structural differentiation of religion leads to ?
-according to Parsons , structural differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion.
-Its functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society
-For example , the church loses its influence it once had on education , social welfare and law
Explanation of secularisation - Structural differentiation what does Bruce believe this leads to for religion ?
-Privatisation
-Bruce agrees that religion has become separated from wider Society and has lost many of its former functions
-It has become privatised - confined to the private sphere of the home and the family
-Religious beliefs are now largely a matter of private choice and religious institutions have lost much of their influence on wider society
Explanation of secularisation - what does Berger see as another cause of secularisation and what is meant by this ?
-Berger sees religious diversity as a cause of secularisation
-due to the trend of religious diversity where instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one interpretation of faith , there are many
Explanation of secularisation - how does Berger link the idea of secularisation to the sacred canopy ?
-in the Middle Ages , the Catholic Church held an absolute monopoly - it had no competition . As a result , everyone lived under a single sacred canopy or set of beliefs shared by all. This gave these beliefs greater plausibility because they had no challengers and the church’s version of the truth was unquestioned
-since the reformation , the number and variety of religious organisations has continued to grow , each with a different version of the truth
-with the arrival of this religious diversity , no church can now claim an unchallenged monopoly of the truth
-Society is thus no longer unified under the single sacred canopy provided by one church
-religious diversity creates a plurality of life worlds , where peoples perceptions of the world vary and where there are different interpretations of the truth
Explanation of secularisation - how does Berger argue that religious diversity creates a crisis of credibility for religion ?
-Berger argues that religious diversity creates a crisis of credibility for religion .
-Diversity undermines religions plausibility structure - the reasons why people find religion believable
-when there are alternative versions of religion to chose between , people are likely to question all of them and this erodes the certainties of traditional religion
-Religious beliefs become relative rather than absolute - what is true or false becomes simply a personal point of view , and this creates the possibility of opting out of religion all together
What are the 2 counter trends which Bruce identifies which seem to go against the secularisation theory. Both are associated with higher than average levels of religious participation ?
-Cultural defence
-cultural transition
Bruce - what is meant by cultural defence as a criticism of the secularisation theory ?
-Bruce identifies cultural defence
-This is where religion provides a focal point for the defence of a national , ethnic , local or group identity in a struggle against an external force such as hostile foreign power
Bruce - what is meant by cultural transition as a criticism of the secularisation theory ?
-Bruce identifies cultural transition
- this is where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country and culture
How does Berger criticise the secularisation theory ?
Berger has changed his views and now argues that diversity and choice actually stimulates interest and participation in religion
