4. Religion, renewal and choice

What does Davie believe about how religion has changed?

• She says religions has shifted from obligation towards consumption or choice

• Eg: in England and France babies being baptised used to be seen as an obligation whereas now many babies aren’t baptised. Similarly, there has been an increase in the number of adults choosing to be baptised

• This is evidence of believing without belonging where religion is taking a more privatised form as people are more reluctant to belong to organisations but still hold religious beliefs

What did Davie say about vicarious religion?

• Believes it is evidence of believing but not belonging

• Says religion is practiced by the professional clergy (the minority) on behalf of the great majority

• In Europe, Churches are seen as public utilities which are there for when people need them, eg: funerals/weddings or big national events such as when the Queen died - like a Spiritual Health Service

• People don’t go to Church or pray but are still attached to the Church for when they need it - vicarious religion is like the tip of the iceberg

• She questions the assumption that modernisation effects society’s the same (USA vs Britain) and argues there are multiple modernities

How do Bruce and Voas and Crockett evaluate Davie’s points with the idea of neither believing nor belonging?

• Voas and Crockett say evidence shows belief in God is declining in line with Church attendance

• Bruce adds that if people aren’t willing to go to Church it reflects their declining strength of belief

• Day found that from some census results people who put they were Christian just put it so they aligned with the White/English ethnic group

What did Hervieu-Leger late-modernity say?

• Due to cultural amnesia and trends towards social equality, parents allow their children more to decide what they wish to believe. This means religion is passed down less from generation to generation through socialisation

• There are now spiritual shoppers who take a “do it yourself” approach to religion where individual consumerism has replaced collective tradition

• Religion no longer acts as a collective identity as it once did and is more of a spiritual journey

• There are 2 new religious types: pilgrims (follow an individual path of self-discovery, part of the holistic milieu, join NAM’s) and converts (join religious groups that offer strong sense of belonging based on shared ethnicity or religious doctrine eg: evangelical movements)

How does Hervieu-Leger evaluate her own point?

While religion no longer acts as a collective identity for society it still has an effect on societal values. Eg: human rights are based on religious doctrine and maintaining social solidarity even for those who don’t believe in religion. Her ideas are late modernity

What does postmodernist Lyon say about globalisation, religion and the media?

• Traditional religion is giving way to a variety of religious forms and believing without belonging is becoming popular

• Postmodernity features globalisation, increased the importance of media and communications and the growth of consumerism

• Electronic Church and televangelism allowed people to experience many religions without attending Church - the media saturates people with ideas causing religious ideas to become disembedded

• Religion has become de-institutionalised where people can access religious ideas from all over the world and adapt it for their own purposes. Religious ideas become a cultural resource floating in cyber-space.

How does Helland differentiate between the types of electronic Church?

• Religion online - top down communication religious organisations use to communicate with members and converts. There is no feedback or dialogue and he compares this to the hierarchal Church

• Online religion - form of cyber-religion which has no existence outside the internet. Many to many form of communication where people create non-hierarchal relationships and a sense of community where they can have mutual support.

Evaluate Helland’s points?

• Cowan found the Pagans gained a sense of self-worth from feeling like they belong to a global network

• Hoover et al says for most users online forms of religion are just a supplement for Church-based activities rather than a substitute.

What does Lyon say about religious consumerism?

• People now pick’n’mix elements of each religion to suit their tastes.

• This links to individualism where people discover themselves through “self-spirituality/religion”.

• Eg: Shielaism by Bellah where a person creates their own personal faith

• Ammerman’s study found that people made use of a number of Churches without giving loyalty to any.

• Allows for the growth of NRM’s where people can “sample” religions and construct their own personal belief system

Evaluate what Lyon says about consumerism?

• Loss in faith of meta narratives so traditional religions can no longer claim a monopoly on truth.

• Religions competing means people may be sceptical that any religion is telling the truth

What does Lyon say in contrary to rationalisation?

• Argues about the re-enchantment of the world where there is the growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality through NRM’s.

What did Heelas and Woodhead find? Postmodernist

• Instead of secularisation, there has been a “spiritual revolution” where people are moving away from traditional religion towards individualised spirituality.

• Shift away from duty-based religion to self-development and inner fulfilment.

• Kendal Project found that although church attendance was falling, participation in spiritual activities (e.g. meditation) was increasing, showing that religion has not disappeared but changed form rather than declined.

• Evangelical Churches are most successful because they demand both duty and discipline and personal growth through being “born again”

How does Bruce criticise the New Age?

• Forms of individualised religion would need to be on a much greater scale to fill the gap left by traditional religions

• Lack of socialisation of beliefs to next generation. Woman in holistic milieu (NRM) are most likely to be childless, in Kendal only 32% of parents in the NRM said their children shared the same spiritual interests. ¾ of marriages with women in the NRM the man doesn’t share the same beliefs reducing the likelihood of beliefs being passed down to the next generation.

• Weak commitment. Many people sample it then leave.

• New Age movements often can’t achieve a consensus about beliefs as everyone is free to believe what they wish, can’t evangelise because enlightenment comes from within. This may show how New Age spirituality is an example of secularisation itself.

What does Stark and Bainbridge religious market theory assume? (can be used as evaluation)

• People are naturally religious and religion meets human needs.

• It is human natural to seek rewards and avoid costs

What makes religions attractive according to Stark and Bainbridge?

Compensators. When real life rewards are unobtainable, religion compensates by promising supernatural ones. Eg: people cannot live forever however, religion promises life after death in Heaven.

Non religious organisations eg: humanism can’t provide compensators because they do not believe in the supernatural

What 2 things do Stark and Bainbridge believe about religious market theory?

• Religion is in a cycle of renewal. Secularisation is false because religion faces periods of growth and decline in a cycle throughout history. Eg: when traditional religions declined sects and cults increased.

• Religious competition. Churches act like competitors in a market improving their goods to suit and attract customers. Religions that don’t do this will see a decline in members.

What do Stark and Bainbridge believe about America vs Europe linked to religious market theory? Who supports this?

USA is more religious because there is a religious monopoly and lots of competition which gives the organisations an incentive to improve to keep attracting members. They believe a greater supply rather than demand of religions increases the religiosity of a country because there is more choice.

• Hadden and Shupe agree saying televangelism in the 1960’s allowed evangelical churches to thrive

• Post WW2 in Japan the religious market was deregulated allowing for new religions such as Soka Gakkai (type of Buddhism) to thrive

Evaluate religious market theory?

1. Bruce says statistics show religious diversity decreases the demand for religion. He also claims that Stark and Bainbridge misrepresent secularisation theory assuming that it will lead to everyone becoming atheists instead of a long term decline in religion

2. Norris and Inglehart found high religious participation in countries like Ireland where there is a high religious monopoly. Differences between societies.

3. Beckford criticises it saying it assumes people are naturally drawn to religion and doesn’t really explain why

4. Church statistics are often unreliable as Churches want to make out they have more members than they do + social desirability

How do Norris and Inglehart reject religious market theory?

• They say it only applies to America and fails to explain the societal differences in religiosity

• Existential security theory says that religion meets the need for security.

• Rich societies (Western areas) have a high standard of living due to healthcare, NHS so are at less risk → more secular.

• Poor societies may face life-threatening risks such as famine or war → more religious as they face greater insecurity

• They say America is very religious be cause of the high levels of inequality in the nation, the “dog eat dog” values and inadequate welfare system

Evaluate existential security theory?

• Gill and Lundegaarde found that the more a country spends on welfare → lower religiosity. However, welfare won’t eliminate religion entirely because it doesn’t answer the ultimate questions about life. It just reduces the need for religion

• Vasquez says they ignore the value religion can have for the wealthy and that they didn’t use qualitative data