Explanationd Of Secularisation

What have sociologists developed?

A variety of theories and concepts to explain the process of secularisation.

What is a common explanation of secularisation?

Modernisation, involving the decline of tradition and its replacement with rational and scientific ways of thinking that tend to undermine religion.

What does secularisation theory emphasise?

The effect of social change on religion.

What is a major theme in explanations of secularisation?

The growth of social and religious diversity; Not only are people increasingly diverse in terms of their occupational and cultural backgrounds, but religious institutions are much more varied. Secularisation theorists argue that the growth of diversity has undermined both the credibility of religious beliefs and religious institutions.

In relation to secularisation, what does rationalisation refer to?

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

What did Weber argue?

That the Protestant Reformation begun by Luther in the 16th century started a process of rationalisation of life in the Wet. This process undermined the religious worldview of the Middle Ages and replaced it with 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‘ or magical garden. God and other spiritual beings and forces, 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 beings and forces by magical means such as prayers and spells, fasts and pilgrimages.

What did the Protestant Reformation bring?

A new worldview. Instead of the interventionist God of medieval Catholicism, Protestantism saw God as transcendent - exiting above and beyond the world, he did not intervene in it, but instead left it to tun according to its own laws of nature.

What did the Protest reformation mean?

That 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 - the power of reason. Using reason and science, humans could discover the laws of nature, understand and predict how the world works and control it through technology. In other words, there was no longer a need for religious explanations of the world, since the world was no longer an enchanted garden.

In Weber’s view, what did the Protestant Reformation begin?

The 'disenchantment of the world - it squeezes out magical and religious ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process that leads to the dominance of the rational mode of thought.

What does the disenchantment of the world enable?

This enables science to thrive and provide the basis for technological advances that give humans more and more power to control nature. In turn, this further undermines the religious worldview.

What does Bruce argue?

That the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen.

What does a technological worldview leave little room for?

Religious explanations in everyday life, which only survive in areas where technology is least effective - for example, we may pray for help if we are suffering from an illness for which scientific medicine has no cure.

What does Bruce conclude?

That although scientific explanations do not challenge religion directly, they have greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations. Scientific knowledge does not in itself make people into atheists, but the worldview it encourages results in people taking religion less seriously.

What does Parsons define structural differentiation as?

A process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society. Separate, specialised institutions develop to carry out functions that were previously performed by a single institution.

What does Parsons see structural differentiation as having happened to?

Religion - it dominated pre-industrial society, but with industrialisation it has become a smaller and more specialised institution.

What is disengagement?

According to Parsons, structural differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion. Its functions are transferred ot other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society.

What is privatisation?

Bruce agrees that religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions. It has become privatised - confined to the private sphere of the home and family. Religious beliefs are 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 their meaning.

Even where religion continues to perform functions such as education or social welfare, what must it conform to?

Even where religion continues to perform functions such as education or social welfare, it must conform to the requirements of the secular state. For example, teachers in faith schools must hold qualifications that are recognised by the state. At the same time, church and state tend to become separated in modern society. Modern states increasingly accept that religion is a personal choice and therefore that the state should not be identified with one particular faith.

What is the decline of community?

The move from pre-industrial to industrial society brings about the decline of community and this contributes to the decline of religion.

What does Wilson argue?

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 sta ble local communities, it lost its vitality and its hold over individuals.

What does Bruce see industrialisation as?

Undermining the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together. Small close-knit rural communities give way to large loose-knit urban communities with diverse beliefs and values. Social and geographical mobility not only breaks up communities but brings people together from many different backgrounds, creating even more diversity.

How does the diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles undermine religion?

Even where people continue to hold religious beliefs, they cannot avoid knowing that many of those around them hold very different views. Bruce argues that the plausibility (believability) of beliefs is undermined by alternatives. It is also undermined by individualism because the plausibility of religion depends on the 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.

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

Aldridge points out that a community does not have to be in a particular area:

• Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale This is true of lewish, Hindu and Muslim communities, for example.

• Some religious communities are imagined communities that interact through the use of global media.

• Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in 'impersonal' urban areas.

What does Berger argue?

That another cause of secularisation is the 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?

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church held an absolute monopoly - it had no competition. As a result, everyone lived under a single sacred canopy or set of beliefs shared by all. This gave these beliefs greater plausibility because they had no challengers and the 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 the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Since the Reformation, the number and variety of religious organisations has continued to grow, each with a different version of the truth. With the arrival of this religious diversity, no church can now claim an unchallenged monopoly of the truth.

Along with the Protestant Reformation, is society still unified?

Society is thus no longer unified under the single sacred canopy provided by one church. Instead, religious diversity creates a plurality of life worlds, where people's perceptions of the world vary and where there are different interpretations of the truth.

What does Berger argue about plasibility structure?

That this creates a crisis of credibility for religion. Diversity undermines religion's 'plausibility structure' - the reasons why people find it believable. When there are alternative versions of religion to choose between, people are likely to question all of them and this erodes the absolute certainties of traditional religion. Religious beliefs become relative rather than absolute - what is true or false becomes simply a personal point of view, and this creates the possibility of opting out of religion altogether.

What does Bruce see the trend towards religious diveristy as?

The most important cause of secularisation.

What does Bruce identify?

Two counter-trends that seem to go against secularisation theory. Both are associated with higher than average levels of religious participation.

What are the two countertrends as identified by Bruce?

• Cultural defence.

• Cultural transition.

What is cultural defence?

Where 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. Examples include the popularity of Catholicism in Poland before the fall of communism and the resurgence of Islam before the revolution in Iran in 1979.

What is cultural transition?

Where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country and culture. Herberg describes this in his study of religion and immigration to the USA. Religion has performed similar functions for Irish, African Caribbean, Muslim, Hindu and other migrants to the UK.

Why does Bruce argue that religion survive in such conditions (cultural defence and transition)?

Because it is a focus for group identity. Thus these examples do not disprove secularisation, but show that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural.

Does evidence support Bruce’s conclusion?

Yes. For example, churchgoing declined in Poland after the fall of communism and there is evidence that religion loses importance for migrants once they are integrated into society.

What does Berger argue?

He changed his views and now argues that diversity and choice actually stimulate interest and participation in religion. For example, the growth of evangelicalism in Latin America and the New Christian Right in the USA point to the continuing vitality of religion, not its decline.

What idea dies Beckford agree with?

The idea that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs, but this is not inevitable. Opposing views can have the effect of strengthening a religious group's commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them.