Beliefs in Society- Secularisation

Defining Secularisation

  • Wilson described secularisation as the “process whereby religious thinking, practices and institutions lose their social significance”.

  • Berger in “The Social reality of Religion” argues that it is “the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols”.

Problem of Measuring Religion in society

  • Census data may be filled out by head of house and not show true nature of everyone’s religion belief.

  • Church census data is taken on one day and can be artificially inflated, e.g. only being taken on Christmas Day when many people will be going to Church, more many reasons.

  • Many people could only attend Church fir non- religious related benefits.

  • Ethnic minority groups may say they are religious in order to not be seen as socially deviant.

  • Elderly people or others can be religious and not be able to go to Church.

  • The concept of operationalisation, in this context, refers to the way we can put such definitions into practice.

  • We are faced with operational problems relating to the concept of secularisation, we are also faced with problems that relate to how we can define “religious activity”, as we are measuring if it has increased or declined, we clearly need to know what level it has declined from.

Measuring secularisation

  • Like the concept of religion, the concept of secularisation clearly poses problems of definition.

  • Berger notes secularisation not present such problems, but also creates problems.

  • Secularisation is an ideological concept- to define it means there is an occurring social process.

  • In order to measure secularisation, it needs to be compared to historical levels of religious practices.

  • In order to do this, there needs to be an all-embracing definition of “religion”, as we need to define “religious practice”, “religious organisation” and “religious belief” in order to find the “normal” level to compare to current levels. - Wilson.

Problems measuring secularisation

  • Validity- difficult to be valid with no set definition.

  • Results are open to interpretation- high participation doesn’t mean high belief- Martin states that Victorian society were required to go to Church for respectability.

  • Reliability- historical documents regarding religiosity may not meet contemporary standards of reliability.

  • Social desirability is a huge factor in the study of religion. Census- what is your religion (68% have a religion) vs are religious (29% said yes).

Two main ways that secularisation may be occurring:

  • Woodhead and Hellas-

  • The disappearance thesis- modernity has brought on the death of religion- lost significance for both the individual and society.

  • The differentiation thesis- religion is in social decline but not individual decline. religion no longer plays an important role in day to day running of society but people are choosing different forms of belief over traditional church attendance.

Secularisation is occurring

A decline in religious belief

  • Desacralisation- Weber- rationalisation and disenchantment of the world- greater stride forward in science and philosophy have made people sought for rational explanations for phenomena, rather than divine intervention. Middle Ages vs Enlightenment period.

  • Technological worldview- Bruce- developed Weber’s idea- people have developed more rational ways of thinking and technological worldview- technology and science has replaced religious explanation for events.

A decline in religious practice

  • Crockett- English Census- 50% of the adult population attended church in the 1950s vs 7.5% in 2000.

  • Decline in marriage and baptism- fewer than ½ of all marriages in the UK involve a religious ceremony. Less than a 1.4 babies are now baptised, compared with 2.3 in 1950.

A decline in the influence of religious institutions

  • The Church has little influence over social policies e.g. Civil Partnerships and abortions are legal now despite opposition form some religions.

  • Religious institutions are loosing respect for major festivals such as Christmas and Easter which are fast- becoming, money- making, “empty” festivals.

  • Lyon- Jesus in Disneyland- religion going through a process of “Disneyification” in that it is the post-modern “market” world, people are wanting to customise their identities and are free to do so, as religion is just another commodity on the market shelf.

Evaluation

  • Winter and Short in 1993 said that many people believe without necessarily belonging to a formal church.

  • Bainbridge says religion is cyclical. There are periods of strong belief followed by other times when society is less religious in tone.

  • Martin says that NRMs are actually valid religions.

Secularisation is not occurring

Religious beliefs are not in decline

  • Resacralisation- Heelas argues that the world is going through a “Spiritual Revolution”. People are getting more involved in New Age “Holistic Milieu”- Mind- Body Spirituality. Religion in another form.

  • Baudrillard- People are rediscovering religion in personalised forms, “pick ‘n’ mixing” their religious and spiritual self and tailoring their religious identities as there is more choice in modern society.

Religious practice not in decline

  • Moving to private sphere

  • Davie- believing in a God does not necessarily mean attending a religious institution or service. Can worship at home in a “Privatised” manner- helped by TV, radio and the Internet.

  • Church attendance has been higher in the past because there was a social pressure to attend if you wanted respectability.

Power of influence in religious institutions still existing.

  • Ethnocentricity- membership to some faiths is declining, it is important to note that some groups such as the Mormons and JWs and religions such as Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism are increasing in membership.

  • More “Western” religions such as Christianity may be more in decline, but not others.

  • Some researchers might be accused of ethnocentricity by focusing only on traditional western “Christian” religions.

  • Religion is still important in the USA- Bruce- American religion has adapted to modern society by moving from tradition belief and glorification of God to a more psychological or therapeutic belief system. This has allowed religion to remain popular in a more secular society. Religion has moved from seeking salvation to self- improvement.

Evaluation

  • A survey published in the Sunday Times in 1997 of 200 vicars found that many did not know the Ten Commandments, many do not believe in the Virgin Birth and others did not believe in the miracles or the devil.

  • Parsons says that society is so complex, it is hard for religion and religious institutions such as churches to maintain control over belief.