7.5.1: The secularisation thesis

what is secularisation?

• definition 1

  • wilson

  • clarifies that secularisation is a process

  • very broad definition

  • covers different aspects of religion

  • difficult to use to measure or operationalise secularisation

  • not clear about when secularisation began - makes it difficult to measure extent

• definition 2

  • Bruce

  • easier to operationalise - more detailed

  • doesn’t provide a timescale

  • doesn’t explains what ‘beliefs of a religious kind’ are

• definition 3

  • casanova

  • difficult to measure quantitatively

what is the secularisation thesis?

• hypothesis or theory claiming that secularisation is occuring

• little agreement amongst sociologists about the rate at which this is happening and how to operationalise it

• questions which forms of religion are less important today and which have become more important

• use a range of different sources of evidence to support claims

classical theories of secularisation

• majority of sociologists take a secular view of the world

  • claim religion is a social construct

  • claim religion changes over time and from place to place

  • durkheim

  • marx

  • comte

  • Weber

• has rationalisation led to a decline in religious belief?

  • Weber

  • modern societies seen to be incompatible with religion

contemporary theories of secularisation

• bruce

• structural differentiation:

  • modern western societies (1850-1980)

  • led to the separattion of social institutions as they became more specialized in their role

  • churches became less central to social life

  • churches narrowly became as providing a belief system

• social different action:

  • feudal times (9th century-15th century)

  • urbanisation led to emergence of different social classes

  • caused distinct and separate living

  • greater social mobility = people didn’t feel like they belonged to one social world

• changes coincided with individualism

  • less need for collective experiences and institutions

• schisms/splits:

  • occured in establishing religions with the increasing number of different social and cultural groups

  • increase in new forms of religious beliefs

• wilson

• stark and bainbridge

evaluation of views on the secularisation thesis

• assumes that religion was significant to most at some point

  • some claim this is false

  • not supported by sufficient empirical evidence

• difficult to measure the past as a golden age of religion because of the lack of reliable or valid records about beliefs and practices

  • people may have participated to conform to social expectations rather than truly believing

• secularisation theorists tend to come from western culture and their views may not be shared woldwide

• difficult to find a common definition for all forms of religion

  • makes it difficult to compare levels of religiosity

• some claim secularisation will occur as a result of globalisation and westernisation

• resacralisation

  • process of people reaffirming religious beliefs

  • kepel

  • resurgence of religion