Secularisation

What is secularisation and some statistics

Secularisation: process of religion declining in society through the decline of beliefs, practices and institutions.

• 1851- 40%, 2020- 4% (adults attending church)

• since 1983 adults with no religion has risen from a 1/3 to a 1/2

• Clergy: 1900- 45000 → 2000- 34,000
  - fewer people going so fewer clergy needed
  - fewer churches so fewer clergy needed

explanations for secularisation: rationalisation- weber

society no longer uses religion to explain the world around us meaning it has become less important.
- the enlightenment lead to a period of disenchantment meaning we stopped understanding the world as being enchanted or mystical but instead as something we could understand e.g. understanding gravity, evolution.
- therefore developed a technological/ scientific worldview rather than a religious one.

explanations for secularisation: structural differentiation, Parsons

the church had a generalised role but as these roles have been replaced by specialists institutions the role of the church has declined.
- shops were specialist institutions e.g. butchers, greengrocers → now become more generalised institutions where focus is on providing a range of services e.g. TESCO, Amazon.
- churches were generalised institutions but have now become more specialist.

explanations for secularisation: social and cultural diversity, Wilson

• pre industrial society mostly consisted of farming communities with strong bonds between each other where religion was at the heart of these communities and was a collective experience.

• during the Industrial revolution there was significant rural to urban migration as workers moved to the cities to take up new jobs in factories/ mills etc. which created large impersonal loose knit centres with diverse beliefs and values.

• religion was part of an older way of life and was abandoned by many

explanations for secularisation: religious diversity, berger

• in the middle ages, the catholic church had a monopoly as it was the only belief system so was not challenged meaning virtually everyone was a follower and did not question their beliefs.

• however, with increasing diversity, just caused by the protestant reformation and then by increased migration and globalisation, people encouraged new ideas that challenged their own.

• this challenged their plausibility structures (set of beliefs which combine to make us believe something) which Berger argued meant people lost their beliefs leading to secularisation.