Davie - belief without belonging

Change in religion over time

• Obligation → consumption/choice

⛪️of🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 in the past

• Obligated ⛪️ attendance, beliefs and actions

Religion today

• Personal choice

• Not inherited or imposed

Baptisms in the past

• Obligatory right of passage, especially for infants

Baptisms today

• Minority of babies

  • Adult baptisms rising, often by choice

Belief without belonging

• Religion taking different privatised forms rather than declining

• People are reluctant to belong to organisations like ⛪️, trade unions or political parties but still hold religious beliefs

Vicarious religion

• Religion is practiced by an active minority (clergy, Church-goers) on behalf of the great majority (public) who experience religion 2nd hand

  • Shown in declining attendance but steady identification with ⛪️

Spiritual Health Service

• Maj. national ⛪️ in Europe seen as public utilities for people to use when they need to

SHS example

• ⛪️ for weddings/baptisms/fulnerals and tragedies

  • E.g. Princess Diana

  • E.g. 2011 neo-Nazi massacre of 93 people in 🇳🇴

Iceberg of religious belief

• Tip = vicarious religion and declining ⛪️ attendance

  • Below water = attatchment to ⛪️ as a SHS and sharing beliefs at some level

Davie’s CRITICISM of secularisation theory

• Assumes modernisation affects every society in the same way

  • Instead: multiple modernities with different patterns of religion despite all being modern societies

  • 🇬🇧: ⛪️ attendance declining

  • 🇺🇸: ⛪️ attendance rising

CRITICISM of Davie — Voas and Crockett (2005)

• Both ⛪️ attendance AND belief are declining together (whilst Davie says belief not declining)

CRITICISM of Davie — Bruce (2001)

• Lack of willingness to invest time in going to ⛪️ shows declining strength of beliefs

  • No belief → no wish to belong → declining involvement in religion

CRITICISM of Davie — Day (2007)

• ✝ = non-religious marker of ethnic/national ID, aka synonym for White 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ethnic group

  • They believe IN belonging