Beliefs in society - Topic 3 (Secularisation)

What is Secularisation?

Decline in the importance of religion

What does Crockett (1998) estimate based on evidence from the 1851 Census of Religious Worship?

In 1851, 40% or more of the adult population of Britain attended church on Sundays

Why do less ppl in Britain attend church today compared to before?

Decline in proportion of population going to church / belonging to one
Increase in avg age of churchgoers
Fewer baptisms / church weddings
Decline in the numbers holding traditional Christian beliefs
Greater diversity, including more non-Christian religions

In 1966, what did Wilson argue abt Western societies?

They’d been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation

How did Wilson define secularisation?

The process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose significance

What is evidence for secularisation, what did this lead Wilson to conclude?

Church attendance in England and Wales had fallen from 40% of the population in the mid 19th century to 10-15% by the 1960s
Church weddings, baptisms and Sunday school attendance had also declined
Wilson concluded Britain had become a secular society

How have the trends WIlson identified continued today?

By 2015, about 5% of the adult populaton attended church on Sundays (halved since 60s)
The English Church Census (2006) shows attendances at large organisations such as the Church of England and Catholic Church have declined more than small organisations, some of which are remaining stable / have grown
(Growth of small ones hasn’t made up for decline of large ones)

How have church weddings and baptisms declined?

In 1971, 60% of weddings were in Church, but by 2012 the proportion was only 30%
No. of Catholic baptisms today is under half those in 1964

What are ‘Bogus baptisms’ and why have they increased?

Older children - as many faith schools (which tend to be higher-performing) will only take baptised children, thus, baptism becomes an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of Christian commitment

What does religious affiliation refer to?

A person’s membership of or identification w a religion

Why did the no. of Catholics and those belonging to a non-Christian religion (mainly Islam) increase slightly?

Catholics = East European immigration
Islam = Immigration and higher birth rates

What is evidence about religious beliefs from 80 years of survey research?

Religious belief is declining along with church attendance and membership
Significant decline in belief in a personal god, in Jesus as the son of God and in Christian teachings abt the afterlife and the bible

Why has the influence of religion as a social institution declined?

The state has taken over many of the functions that the church used to perform. Thus, whereas religion once pervaded every aspect of life, it has increasingly been confined to the private sphere of the individual and family

What are other reasons for decline in influence of the church?

A lack of clergy on the ground in local communities means day-to-day influence of churches is reduced

How does Bruce agree with Wilson?

All evidence on secularisation has now been pointing in the same direction for many years
He concludes that: “Whether we measure church membership, attendance, popularity of reliigous ceremonies or religious belief, we find there’s a steady and unremitting decline”

What does Bruce predict about current Secularisation trends?

If they continue, the Church of England will be merely a small voluntary organisation w a large amount of heritage property

What are explanations of secularisation?

Modernisation - decline of tradition and its replacement with national and scientific ways of thinking that tend to undermine religion
Social change - Industrialisation leads to break up of small communities that were held together by common religious beliefs
Growth of diversity - People are more diverse in terms of occupuational and cultural bgs, religious institutions more varied so diversity undermines authority of religious institutions and credibility of religious beliefs

In relation to secularisation, what does rationalisation refer to?

Process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones
Many sociologists argue Western society has undergone a process of rationalisation in the last few centuries

What does Weber argue about rationalisation?

The Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther in the 16th century started a process of rationalisation of life in the West. This undermined the religious worldview of the Middle Ages and replaced it w the rational scientific outlook found in modern society

For Weber, what did the medieval Catholic worldview that dominated Europe see the world as?

an ‘enchanted garden’. God and other spiritual forces (angels / devils) were believed to be present and active in this world, changing the course of events through their supernatural powers and miraculous interventions in it
Humans could try to influence these forces by magical means (prayers) to ensure good harvests / protection against disease

How has Protestant Reformation brought a new worldview, instead of the interventionist God of medieval Catholicism?

Saw God as transcendent - as existing above and beyond, or outside, this world
Although God created the world, he didn’t intervene and left it run according to its own laws of nature

What does it mean if God left the world to run according to its own laws of nature?

Events were no longer to be explained as the work of unpredictable supernatural beings, but as the predictable workings of natural forces
All that was needed to understand them was rationality (reason)

Why is rationality - the power of reason important?

To discover laws of nature, understand and predict how the world works and control it through technology (world no longer an enchanted garden)

In Weber’s view, what does Protestant Reformation begin?

‘disenchantment’ of the world - squeezing out magical / religious ways of thinking and starting off the rationalisation process, enabling science to thrive and provide the basis for technological advances that give humans more and more power to control nature, thus, undermining the religious worldview

Following Weber, what does Bruce argue?

Growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious / supernatural explanations of why things happen e.g when a plane crashes w loss of lives, we’re unlikely to regard it as work of evil spirits / God’s punishment but we look for scientific / tech explanations

What’s the impact of having a technological worldview?

Leaves little room for religious explanations in everyday life, which only survive in areas where tech is least effective e.g praying for help if suffering from an illness w/o cure

What does Bruce conclude about scientific explanations?

They don’t challenge religion directly but have greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations. Scientific knowledge doesn’t in itself make ppl into atheists, but the worldview it encourages results in ppl taking religion less seriously

How does Parsons define structural differentiation?

A process of specialisation that occurs w development of industrial society
Separate, specialised institutions develop to carry out functions that were previously performed by a single institution
Parson sees this as having happened to religion - dominated pre-industrial society, but w industrialisation become smaller and more specialised

According to Parsons, what does structural differentiation lead to?

Disengagement of religion - functions transferred to other institutions (state) and it becomes disconnected from wider society e.g church loses influence it once had on education, social welfare and the law

According to Bruce, why has religion become privatised?

Religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions - confined to private sphere of home and family
Religious beliefs now largely a matter of personal choice and religious institutions have lost much of their influence on wider society
As a result, traditional rituals and symbols have lost meaning

How does the move from pre-industrial to industrial society bring about the decline of community and how does this contribute to decline of religion?

Wilson argues that in pre-industrial communities, shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour
However, when religion lost its basis in stable local communities, it lost its vitality and hold over individuals

How does Bruce see industrialisation as undermining the consensus of religious beliefs thath old small rural communities together?

Small close-knit rural communities give way to large loose-knit urban communities w diverse beliefs and values
Social and geographical mobility not only breaks up communities but brings ppl together from many diff bgs, creating even more diversity

How does Bruce argue diversity of occupations, culture and lifestyles undermines religion?

Plausibility (believability) of beliefs is undermined by alternatives and individualism as plausibility of reliogion depends on existence of a practising community of believers
In the absence of a practising religious community that functions on a day-to-day basis, both religious belief and practice tend to decline

Why has the view that the decline of community causes decline of religion been criticised?

Aldridge - community doesn’t have to be in a particular area, religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale (Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities)
Some religious communities are imagined communities that interact through global media
Pentecostal and other religious gruops often fluorish in ‘impersonal’ urban areas

According to Berger (1969), what is another cause of secularisation?

Trend towards religious diversity where instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one interpretation of the faith, there are many

What is the sacred canopy and what were its impacts?

Catholic Church holding a monopoly in the Middle Ages (no competition)
As a result, everyone lived under a single sacred canopy (set of beliefs shared by all)
This gave these beliefs greater plausibility as they had no challengers and Church’s version of the truth was unquestioned

How did the sacred canopy change?

With the Protestant Reformation, when Protestant churches and sects broke away from Catholic Church in 16th century
Since the Reformation, the no. and variety of religious organisations has continued to grow, each w 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, religious diversity creates a plurality of life worlds (ppl’s perceptions of the world varying w different interpretations of the truth)

What does Berger argue about Plausibility structure?

Creates crisis of credibility for religion. DIversity undermines religion’s ‘plausability structure’ - the reasons why ppl find it believable
When alt ver of religion to choose, ppl likely to q all of them, eroding absolute certainties of trad religion

What happens when people are likely to question all alternate versions of religion?

Religious beliefs become relative rather than absolute - what is true / false becomes a personal POV, creating the possibility of opting out of religion altogether

What does Bruce see as the most important cause of secularisation?

Trend towards religious diversity

What two counter-trends does Bruce identify that seem to go against secularisation theory?

Cultural defence - religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external force such as a hostile foreign power
Cultural transition - religion provides support and sense of community for ethnic groups e.g migrants

What is an example of cultural defence?

Popularity of Catholicism in Poland before the fall of communism and resurgence of Islam before the revolution in Iran in 1979

How did Herberg study cultural transition?

Studied religion andi mmigration in the USA
Religion has performed similar functions for Irish, African Caribbean, Muslim, Hindu and other migrants to the UK

Why does Bruce argue religion survives in certain situations?

As it’s a focus for group identity
These examples don’t disprove secularisation, but show religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural

What evidence supports Bruce’s conclusion that religion is most likely to survive when performing functions other than supernatural?

Churchgoing declined in Poland after the fall of communism and there’s evidence religion loses importance for migrants once they’re integrated into society

How did Berger (1999) change his views?

Argues diversity and choice actually stimulate interest and participation in religion e.g growth of evangelicalism in Latin America and NCR in USA point to continuing vitality of religion, not its decline

Who does Beckford agree with?

Agrees w Berger that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs but this is not inevitable
Opposing views can have effect of strengthening a religious group’s commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them

In 1962, what did Wilson find?

45% of Americans attended church on Sundays
However, churchgoing was more an expression of the ‘American way of life’ than of deeply held religioous beliefs
Wilson claimed America was secular because religion had become superficial, not bc ppl abandoned churches

How does Bruce share Wilson’s view?

He uses 3 sources of evidence to support his claim America is becoming increasingly secular

What are the 3 sources of evidence that support Bruce’s view that America is becoming increasingly secular?

Declining church attendance
Secularisation from Within
A trend towards religious diversity and relativism

What did opinion poll research asking ppl about church attendance suggest?

Its been stable at abt 40% of the population since 1940
However, Hadaway working w a team of researchers employed by major churches, found this figure didn’t match the churches’ own attendance statistics
If 40% of Americans were going to church, they’d be full but they’re not

What’s evidence that this tendency to exaggerate churchgoing is a recent development?

Until the 70s, findings of opinion polls matched the churches’ own estimates, but since then the ‘attendance gap’ has widened
e.g a study of attendance at Catholic mass in San Francisco found that in 1972, opinion polls exaggerated attendance by 47% but by 1996, the exaggeration had doubled to 101%

What does Bruce conclude about Declining church attendance?

A stable rate of self-reported attendance of abt 40% has masked a decline in actual attendance in the United States
Widening gap may be due to the fact that it’s still seen as socially desirable / normative to go to church, so ppl who stopped will say they attend if asked in a survey

What does Bruce mean by Secularisation from within?

Emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs and glorifying God has declined and religion in America has become ‘psychologised’ / turned into a form of therapy
This change has enabled it to fit in w a secular society
Thus American religion has remained popular by becoming less religious

How has the purpose of religion changed?

From seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in the world
Decline in commitment to trad beliefs can be seen in ppl’s attitude and lifestyles
Churchgoers are now much less strict than previously in adherence of trad religious morality

How has the growth of religious diversity contributed to secularisation from within?

Churchgoers are becoming less dogmatic in their views

What trend does Bruce identify?

Practical relativism (acceptance of the view others are entitled to hold different beliefs)

How is practical relativism found in Lynd and Lynd’s (1929) study?

In 1924, 94% of churchgoing young people agreed w the statement ‘Christianity is the one true religion and all ppl should be converted to it’
However by 1977, only 41% agreed

What is the counterpart to practical relativism?

The erosion of absolutism

What’s the erosion of absolutism?

We now live in a society where many ppl hold views completely different to ours, undermining our assumption that our own views are absolutely true

What are criticisms of secularisation theory?

Religion isn’t declining but simply changing form
One-sided as it ignores religious revivals and growth of new religions
Evidence of falling church attendance ignores ppl who believe but don’t go
Religion may have declined in Europe but not globally (not universal)
The past wasn’t a ‘golden age’ of faith from which we’ve declined and the future won’t be an age of atheism
Religious diversity increases participation by offering choice, there’s no overall downward trend - religious trends point in diff directions and ppl make use of religion in diff ways

Why is religious belief declining?

Rationalisation
Social and religious diversity

What are counter-trends?

Cltural transition and defence e.g where religion may be a focal point for preserving an ethnic minority’s culture

Item A “The United States is home to groups such as the NCR that campaign to promote religious values in wider society, and opinion polls show 40% of Americans describe themselves as ‘regular church attenders’. Although these figures may lack validity, church attendance in the USA is certainly higher than in European societies such as the UK. As such large numbers of ppl are churchgoers, it’s likely there are a wide variety of motives for church attendance”
1. Outline and explain 2 causes of the process of secularisation (10)

Enchanted garden / Disenchantment / Scientific explanation - Rationalisation / Technological change / Privatised religion / Secularisation from within / Sacred canopy / Protestant Reformation / Plausibility structur

Item A “The United States is home to groups such as the NCR that campaign to promote religious values in wider society, and opinion polls show 40% of Americans describe themselves as ‘regular church attenders’. Although these figures may lack validity, church attendance in the USA is certainly higher than in European societies such as the UK. As such large numbers of ppl are churchgoers, it’s likely there are a wide variety of motives for church attendance”
2. Analyse 2 reasons why apparently high church attendance figures may not mean the United States is a religious society (10)

Secularisation from within / religious diversity / practical relativism / erosion of absolutism + studies such as Hadaway and Bruce