3. Secularisation
- Created by: Amy Parkinson
- Created on: 06-04-15 17:10
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- Secularisation
- Secularisation in britain
- BRUCE: religiosity in Britain is in a long-term decline
- Fewer marriages in church
- Decline in marriage rates
- Increase in divorce rates
- Decline in number of christenings/ baptisms...
- The influence of religion on social institutions has also declined
- More people claim to hold Christian beliefs than actually belong to or got to church
- Greater religious diversity
- Arguments for secularisation theory
- WEBER: rationalisation
- People's understanding of the world became disenchanted by the introduction of science to explain natural laws
- People began to use science to try and explain religion
- HAMILTON: religion has been its own 'gravedigger' because people no longer need religion and use science and rational thought guide their lives and actions
- BRUCE
- Agrees with Weber's rationalisation and sdays that a technological worldview has replaced a religious one. We now look to science and technology to explain worldly events
- Disappearance thesis
- Disappearance thesis
- Structural differentiation
- PARSONS
- A process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society.
- Differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion where its functions are transferred to other institutions and it becomes disconnected from society
- Differentiation thesis
- BRUCE
- Religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its functions
- Religion has become privatised- confined to the private sphere of the home and family
- Disappearance thesis
- PARSONS
- Social and cultural diversity
- WILSON
- These small communities these broke down as industrialisation caused people to disperse and become more diverse
- Religion was strong in pre-industrial society as it was based in small tightly-knit communities
- Disappearance thesis
- WILSON
- BERGER: Religious diversity
- Protestantism brought about more religious diversity which has led to secularisation
- Catholicism claimed to have a monopoly on the truth meaning everyone was under a sacred canopy. Protestantism destroyed this consensus
- Protestantism brought about a 'plurality of life worlds' where perceptions of the truth vary
- Disappearance thesis
- EVAL: BRUCE identifies 2 counter-trends to the secularisation theory
- Cultural defence and transition
- Cultural defence is where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external force
- Cultural transition is where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country and culture
- A Spiritual revolution
- There is now a spiritual market and Christianity is giving way to 'holistic spirituality' and practices that emphasise personal development and subjective experience
- EVAL: WOODHEAD & HEELAS: the growth of NAMs has not been enough to compensate for the decline in traditional religion so there has not been a spiritual revolution
- Cultural defence and transition
- WEBER: rationalisation
- Secularisation in America
- Declining church attendance
- HADAWAY & BRUCE
- Those who claim to go to church is 83% higher than those that actually attend
- The 'attendance gap' is widening because it is still seen as socially desirable to atted church
- HADAWAY & BRUCE
- Secularisation from within
- BRUCE
- The emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs has declined and religion in America has become 'psychologised' or turned into a form of therapy
- The purpose of religion has turned from seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in this world
- BRUCE
- Religious diversity
- The growth of religious diversity has also contributed to secularisation from within as churchgoers become less dogmatic in their views
- BRUCE identifies trends of practical relativism among American Christians involving acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold beliefs that are different to one's own
- There has also been an erosion in absolutism- that is we now live in a society where many people hold completely different views to one another which undermines our assumptions of the truth
- Declining church attendance
- Difficulties in measuring seculistaion
- Measuring religion
- Surveys of membership
- Church attendance
- Marriage/ divorce rates
- Christenings/ baptisms
- Defining secularisation
- WILSON: secularisation is 'the process whereby religious practice, thinking and institutions lose significance in society'
- GLASER: levels of analysis= interpersonal (thoughts & feelings), organisational (power of church), and cultural (values in society)
- disappearance vs differentiation?
- Defining religion
- Functional (inclusive, less likely to think secularisation is happening)
- Substantive (exclusive, more likely to think secularisation is happening)
- Social constructionist (anything can be a religion, cannot say whether secularisation is happening or not)
- Measuring religion
- Secularisation in britain
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