The secularisation debate

What is meant by secular?

Not concerned with religion

What is meant by secularisation?

The process in which religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance.

What is meant by the secularisation thesis?

The argument that secularisation is happening

Secularisation statistics- UK

• Christianity: 2/3 in 1983 → just over 1/3 today (British Social Attitudes).

• No religion: 25.2M (2011) → 22.2M, 37.2% (2021 Census).

• Other religions: Grew by 100,000+ in 10 years → suggests religious diversity persists, questioning “truly secular” society.

What are the three main debates for sociologists to consider?

• Secularisation is happening

• Secularisation is not happening

• Secularisation is happening in some places, but not in others

Why is the secularisation debate complex?

It is very hard to operationalise religiosity as it means different things to different people.

Measuring religion

• Substantive/exclusive: Narrow definition (e.g., Christianity) → shows decline, but stats may be misleading.

• Functional/inclusive: Broad definition (e.g., civil religion, New Age) → shows religion may still be important or growing

Comte on secularisation

Religion would eventually disappear and science would dominate.

Marx on secularisation

Argued that religion is a device to legitimate capitalism but it would disappear when capitalism did, as it would no longer been needed due to it not having a social purpose.

Weber on secularisation

Argued there would be a progressive reduction in the importance of religion. The growth of the more rational and scientific world would erode the spiritual in society, leading to ‘rationalisation’

Durkheim on secularisation

Argued there was ‘something eternal about religion’. However, he did believe it would decline in social significance.

Bruce- contemporary secularisation

• Structural differentiation: Church loses social functions as state & education take over.

• Social differentiation: Urbanisation & class divisions reduce shared social world.

• Individualism: Focus on self → less need for collective worship.

• Schisms: Religious pluralism & new movements weaken established beliefs.

Evaluation of theories on secularisation

Stark and Bainbridge: argue while secularisation may be occurring in established religions there is religious revival in new forms of religion so religion will never completely disappear.

According to Wilson, what three ways can secularisation be defined as?

• Religious thinking

• Religious practices

• Religious institutions

What does religious thinking refer to?

The influence of religion on people’s beliefs and values.

What does religious practices refer to?

Things people do to carry out their religion commitment.

What do religious institutions refer to?

The extent to which religious institutions have maintained their social influence in wider society.

Secularisation is happening: Decline in religious thinking and belief

Rationalisation, society increasingly relies on reason and scientific explanations, not faith:

• Wilson, growth of desacralisation

• Weber, disenchantment

• Bruce, science explains events once attributed to religion

Evaluation of decline in religious thinking and belief

Kendal project: rise of new age spirituality, belief not disappearing but changing form.

Secularisation is happening: Decline of religious institutions

Wilson: Religious institutions have lost power, wealth, prestige and political influence

Secular bodies now control key areas like education and welfare, once run by the church.

Evaluation of decline in religious institutions

Casanova: Globally experiencing de-privatisation- religion becoming more publicly influential e.g. Islamic state, US new right

Secularisation is happening: Decline in religious practices

Wilson/Brierley: Significant fall in church attendance and formal participation:

• UK attendance 50% in 1851 to 6% in 2010

• Fewer religious weddings, baptisms etc

Evaluation of decline in religious practice

Davie- ‘belief without belonging’, people may still believe but practice privately so attendance decline does not equal belief decline.

Secularisation is not happening: Religious beliefs

• Many people still show signs of religiosity.

• In postmodern uncertainty, people look for meaning, belonging and commitment.

• Traditional religions remain strong.

• Growth of fundamentalism shows continued vitality of religious moral values.

Evaluation of religious beliefs

Need to question whether there ever was a “Golden Age of Faith”:

• Historical records are limited/unreliable.

• Past attendance may reflect social obligation, not belief.

• Literacy was low, so written accounts do not represent ordinary people.

Secularisation is not happening: Religious practices

• Belonging without belief: historically, people attended for social convention, not faith.

• Belief without belonging (Davie): today people believe but do not join institutions.

• Some groups are growing, e.g. Pentecostalism, NAMs, NRMs.

Evaluation of religious practices

Some NRMs/NAMs involve shallow or consumerist participation (Bruce), so growth may not equal strong religiosity.

Secularisation is not happening: Religious institutions

• Churches still hold institutional power (e.g. Church of England as official UK religion).

• Strong influence in education: faith schools, compulsory RE.

• Vital for minority ethnic communities:

  • Cultural defence

  • Cultural transition

  • Cultural/Resistance identity

Evaluation of religious institutions

Many institutional roles have been taken over by secular state organisations, reducing religious authority.

Secularisation is happening in some places and not others

• UK Christian belief/practice declining, but rates vary globally.

• Fundamentalism growing (Bruce: response to social change).

• Catholicism strong in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland.

• Religion strong among UK ethnic minorities.

• Some societies (e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia) dominated by religion.

Evaluation of secularisation happening in some places and not others

• Religion varies by CAGE groups.

• Depends on definition of religion/secularisation.

• Glock & Stark: different dimensions may rise or fall separately.

• Growth of NRMs/NAMs shows new forms of religion still developing.

The Kendal project and the spiritual revolution thesis

• Heelas & Woodhead tested whether a spiritual revolution (growth of New Age spirituality) is occurring.

• Two trends:

  1. Secularisation → decline in traditional Christianity.

  2. Sacralisation → rise in New Age / self-spirituality.

Methodology (Kendal project)

• Study conducted in Kendal (population 28,000).

• Compared:

  • Congregational domain (25 churches) → headcount of attendance.

  • Holistic milieu → yoga, meditation, healing only when seen as spiritual.

• Used headcounts, questionnaires, and interviews.

Results (Kendal project)

• Church attendance: 7.9% (same as UK average) → long-term decline since 1950s.

• Holistic milieu: 95 practitioners; 0.9% of population involved spiritually.

• Huge growth since 1970s (from 3 to 600 listings in Yellow Pages).

Conclusions (Kendal project)

• “Spiritual revolution has not taken place in Kendal” (Heelas & Woodhead).

• BUT trends suggest holistic spirituality could overtake churches in 20–30 years if growth continues.