Topic 3 - Secularisation

Changes to the Census (Christianity)

• For the first time in Eng and Wales, less than half the population (46.2%) described themself as Christian

• Christian still remained the most common answer

What was the second most common response in the Census for religion

• No religion

• 37.2%

Where in the UK was the most diverse region

• London

Who argued that the UK was going through a long-term process of secularisation? -

• Wilsons

• Western societies have had a long-term process of secularisation, where institutions and beliefs lose social significance

• Argues that the decline in church weddings, baptism and Sunday school attendance has declined, concluding a more secular society

Church attendance in the UK

• 1.6m in 1960 to under 0.7m in 2020

Decline in church weddings

• 59% of weddings were in churches in 1971

• 20% of weddings in churches in 2018

Explain ‘bogus baptism‘

• Infant baptism has declined but has increased in older children in recent years.

• This may be due to faith schools which tend to be higher-performing will only take baptised children, thus becoming an entry ticket to good schools rather than commitment.

What is religious affiliation

• Individuals membership of or identification with a religion

How does the clergy impact the influence of the church (sociologist)

• Clergy has declined

• Also an aging workforce

• Woodhead - lack of clergy means the day-to-day influence of the church is reduced

Main theories in secularisation theorists argue

• Modernisation

• Decline of tradition

• Industrialisation

• Religious diversity

Sociologist: Who argued rationalisation and who supports this view with technological worldview

• Weber argues rationalisation

• Bruce supports with technological worldview

What does Weber mean by rationalisation

• The process by which rational ways of thinking replace religious ones.

• This process undermines the religious worldview and replaces it with rational scientific outlook.

• Argues Martin Luther Protestant Reformation started this

What does Weber argue caused disenchantment

• Before protestant reformation, saw god as transcendent, events that were no longer explained as unpredictable was explained by the working of natural forces.

• protestant reformation encouraged Calvinism etc, ascetic lifestyles

• Using reason and science, humans could discover laws of nature and predict how the world works

• Protestant reformation begins ‘disenchantment of the world’ which stops religious thinking and moves towards rationalisation

What did x mean by technological worldview

• Bruce

• Technological worldview has replaced religious explanations of why things happen

• E.g. a plane crash, instead of saying sin we look at the scientific and technological explanations

• Leaves little room for religion only where it is not applicable, e.g. praying for cure to illness when there is no medical cure.

• This has reduced scope for religious reasoning

Who argues structural differentiation in religion

• Parsons

• Bruce

What does parsons mean by structural differentiation

• Pre-industrial society, church use to dominate society e.g. through education, laws and welfare

• Industrialised society means that there has become smaller and more specialised institution, e.g. edu from schools and uni, law from police, welfare from NHS

What does Parsons argue structural differentiation has led to + explain

• Disengagement - religion is now separate from public institutions

• Privatisation - religion is a more privatised and personal matter within the home and personal life

What does Bruce argue about the privatisation of religion

• Religion has become separate from wider society and lost many of its former functions

How has decline of community caused secularisation + Sociologist

• Wilson

• Move from pre industrial to industrial caused the decline of community

• Wilson - pre-industrial communities has shared values that were expressed through collective rituals and integrated individuals in society

• Religion began to decline when it lost its basis in stable communities and lost its validity over individuals

How has industrialisation caused the decline of religion + Sociologist

• Bruce

• Bruce - industrialisation undermines the consensus that religious beliefs hold

• With more social and geographical mobility it breaks up communities and creates more diversity, religious loose their plausibility

How has diversity in occupation, lifestyle and culture caused secularisation + sociologist

• Bruce

• People hold many different religious beliefs and surround themselves with others that may hold different views

• Bruce - argues the plausibility/Believability of beliefs are undermined by alternative

• Absence of a practicing religious community causes it to decline

Criticism to social and cultural diversity + Sociologist

• Aldridge

• View that decline of community causes the decline of religion has been criticised

• Religion can be a source of identity for many on a worldwide scale, the case for Muslims, Jews, Hindus

• Some religious communities are imagined communities interact through the global media

• Pentecostal groups have flourished in ‘impersonal areas’

Who argues religious diversity

• Berger (1969)

What is religious diversity

• A cause of secularisation is the trend towards religious diversity where instead of only being one religious organisations and interpreted faith, there are many.

What did Berger mean by ‘Sacred canopy’

• Refers to the European Catholic Church holding an absolute monopoly of truth

• Everyone lived under a ‘sacred canopy’ or a shared set of beliefs

How does Berger say the sacred canopy has changed

• Protestant reformation, Protestant church and sects broke away from the Catholic Church

• There were now different versions of the truth, now there was religious diversity, no church can claim a monopoly of truth

• Society is no longer unified by a single sacred canopy, peoples perception of the world and religion is now different, now there is different interpretations of the truth

What does Berger mean by ‘plausibility structure’

• A crisis of credibility

• Diversity undermines religious plausibility

How has the lack of credibility caused secularisation

• When there are alternative versions of religion to choose from, people question all of them, this erodes the absolute certainties of traditional religion, reduces belief in religion

Criticism of religious diversity

• Berger - Changed his view diversity and choice stimulates interest and participation in religion, e.g. New Christian rights in the US, evangelicalism in Latin America

• Beckford - Opposing view can strengthen a religious groups commitment rather than undermining

Who argues two counter-trends; religious defence and transition, is this a criticism

• Bruce

• This is a criticism to secularisation

What is cultural defences

• Religion providing a focal point for minority groups in a struggle against external forces

What is cultural transition

• Support and sense of community

• E.g. migrant from a different country and culture in the UK using religion as a sense of support

Criticism of cultural defence and cultural transition

• Short term explanation for religious strength

• Shows how religion is only likely to survive when performing a function not relating individuals to the supernatural

• Loses importance once integrated into society

What did Wilson find in America surrounding churchgoing

• In 1962, 45% of Americans attended church on Sunday

• Churchgoing in America was an expression of the ‘American way of life’, rather than deeply held religious beliefs

• Claimed that America has become a secular society as religion there had become superficial

Who argues America is becoming increasingly secular and what 3 measures do they use

• Bruce

• Declining church attendance

• ‘Secularisation from within’

• Trend towards religious diversity and relativism

How is declining church attendance seen in America

• Poll about church attendance suggest that it has been stable 40% of population since 1940

• Hadaway - figures didn’t match the churches own statistics, if 40% of Americans attended church then the churches would be full, but they were not

• Bruce - this may be due to it being socially desirable to go to the church, people who have stopped will still say they have attended in a survey even if they are asked

What is ‘secularisation from within’

• Emphasis of traditional Christian beliefs and glorifying God, has turned into a form of therapy

• American religion has remained popular by becoming less religious

• Purpose of religion from seeking salvation to seeking personal improvements in the world, churchgoers are less stricture than previously

Religious diversity in America has caused

• Less strict in their view

What does Bruce argues is practical relativism

• Acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold the belief different to ones of their own.

What is the ‘erosion of absolutism’

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

Overall criticisms of secularisation theory

• Religion is not declining, but changing forms

• Ignores religious revival and new religious movements

• Falling church attendance ignores believing without belonging

• Secularisation is not universal

• People make use of religion in different ways