Secularisation

Secularisation

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 (religion is in decline)

  1. 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.

  1. structural differentiation, parsons- the church had a generalised role but as these roles have been replaced by specialists institutions the role of the church has declined.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.

religious role (salvation)

community e.g. warmth, shelter, meals

helping those in poverty

education

healthcare

charities

^

department of education

NHS

  1. 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

  1. 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.