Religion, renewal and choice
- Created by: Marianna Keating
- Created on: 12-06-17 15:18
View mindmap
- Religion, renewal and choice
- New forms of religion
- Some sociologists reject the secularisation thesis
- New forms of religion are emerging as a result of choice, consumerism and individualism
- From obligation to consumption
- Davie - People now go to church if they want to, not that they feel obliged to
- Believing without belonging
- Religion is not declining it is just becoming privatised
- People are reluctant to join organisations but still hold religious beliefs
- Religion is not declining it is just becoming privatised
- Vicarious Religion
- R practiced by the majority - R is second hand
- Churches are spiritual health service like NHS - there for when people need it
- Tip of the iceberg - believing without belonging
- Neither believing or belonging
- Voas and Crockett disagree with Davie - church attendance and believing are both declining together
- Bruce - people are not willing to invest their time in church - belief is decling
- Census - 72% identify as Christian
- Day criticises as her interviews showed that few Christians mentioned God or Christianity
- This was used to describe their ethnic group as 'white British'
- Day criticises as her interviews showed that few Christians mentioned God or Christianity
- Spiritual shopping
- Hervieu-Leger - personal choice and decline in obligation - society has developed cultural amnesia
- R was taught by family & Parish - parents now let their children decide what to do
- People now feel that they have a choice in religion and they create do it yourself R
- That fits into their own life and aspirations
- Pilgrims - individual path to self discovery - New Age Spiritual
- Converts - join religious groups which offer strong sense of belonging
- R no longer acts as a source of collective identity - doesn't influence values
- Some sociologists reject the secularisation thesis
- From obligation to consumption
- Davie - People now go to church if they want to, not that they feel obliged to
- Believing without belonging
- Religion is not declining it is just becoming privatised
- People are reluctant to join organisations but still hold religious beliefs
- Religion is not declining it is just becoming privatised
- Vicarious Religion
- R practiced by the majority - R is second hand
- Churches are spiritual health service like NHS - there for when people need it
- Tip of the iceberg - believing without belonging
- Neither believing or belonging
- Voas and Crockett disagree with Davie - church attendance and believing are both declining together
- Bruce - people are not willing to invest their time in church - belief is decling
- Census - 72% identify as Christian
- Day criticises as her interviews showed that few Christians mentioned God or Christianity
- This was used to describe their ethnic group as 'white British'
- Day criticises as her interviews showed that few Christians mentioned God or Christianity
- Spiritual shopping
- Hervieu-Leger - personal choice and decline in obligation - society has developed cultural amnesia
- R was taught by family & Parish - parents now let their children decide what to do
- People now feel that they have a choice in religion and they create do it yourself R
- That fits into their own life and aspirations
- Pilgrims - individual path to self discovery - New Age Spiritual
- Converts - join religious groups which offer strong sense of belonging
- R no longer acts as a source of collective identity - doesn't influence values
- Postmodern R
- Lyon - traditional R is giving way to a variety of new religious forms
- Globalisation, the media and R
- Media saturates us in postmodern society - religious ideas have become disembedded - electronic church and televangelism
- R has become de-insititionalised
- Online R and R online
- R online - top down communication - religious organisation uses the internet to address members - has hierarchy
- Online R - cyber religion - may not exist outside of the internet - no hierarchy - member to member communication
- Religious consumerism
- Postmodern society=consumerism - pick elements of different faiths - suit tastes, fashionable
- Lyon - religion is in the sphere of consumption - may use more than one church - leads to loss of metanarratives
- Self religions and the New Age
- NA spirituality rejects obligation and obedience to external authority - emphasis on personal development and inner self
- Re-enchantment of the world
- Growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality
- A spiritual revolution?
- Holistic spirituality and NA overtaking traditional religion - growth in spiritual market - self help books, courses and therapies
- Heela and Woodhead - distinguish between congregational domain=traditional Christainity and Holistic Melieu=spirituality and New Age
- More people in the congregational domain
- Holistic melieu is growing more due to subjective turn in culture - shift away from obeying and duty
- More people in the congregational domain
- The weakness of the New Age
- Bruce challenged the claim that religion is change not decline
- Socialisation of the next generation is not strong enough
- Weak commitment - people only dabble in medication, horoscopes. astrology - not important parts of lives
- Bruce challenged the claim that religion is change not decline
- Religious market theory
- Stark and Bainbridge - secularisation is eurocentric
- Distorted the view of the past and future
- S&B R provides compensators - real rewards are scared - life after death
- The cycle of renewal - some religions decline, others grow and attract new members
- Religious competition - leads to improvements in the quality of religious goods
- People are naturally religious - meets their needs
- America vs Europe
- Demand for religion increases when there different sorts to chose from
- S&B - religion survives in the USA as there has never been a religious monopoly - consititution guarantees freedom of R
- Europe - dominated by religious monopoly - UK Christian
- Supply and demand - main factor influencing religious participation is the supply of religious groups
- Europe - dominated by religious monopoly - UK Christian
- S&B - religion survives in the USA as there has never been a religious monopoly - consititution guarantees freedom of R
- Demand for religion increases when there different sorts to chose from
- Stark and Bainbridge - secularisation is eurocentric
- Supply led R
- Hadden and Shupe - growth in televangelism - R is supply led
- Lifting restrictions on Asians in America - increases Hara Krishna - became popular
- Growth in megachurches
- Criticisms - Bruce rejects that R diversity increases R participation
- S&B misrepresent secularisation theory - Beckford - unsociological - claims that people are naturally religious
- Criticisms - Bruce rejects that R diversity increases R participation
- Growth in megachurches
- Lifting restrictions on Asians in America - increases Hara Krishna - became popular
- Hadden and Shupe - growth in televangelism - R is supply led
- An alternative view - secularisation and security
- Norris and Inglehart - reject RMT - only applies to USA - fails to explain variation in religiosity in different societies
- Existential security theory
- N&I reason for different levels in religiosity between societies is different degrees of existential security
- Existential security - feeling that survival is secure enough that it can be taken for granted
- R meets need for security
- Poor societies - high demand
- Rich societies - high standard of living no risk - lower religion
- Western Europe is more secular
- Rich societies - high standard of living no risk - lower religion
- Poor societies - high demand
- R meets need for security
- Existential security - feeling that survival is secure enough that it can be taken for granted
- Evaluation - Vasquez - only use quantitative data - see Q as a negative response - ignores positive
- N&I reason for different levels in religiosity between societies is different degrees of existential security
- Existential security theory
- Norris and Inglehart - reject RMT - only applies to USA - fails to explain variation in religiosity in different societies
- New forms of religion
Comments
No comments have yet been made