Religiosity in the contemporary world

Religion has lost its influence over society

Wilson - defined secularisation as the decline of the 'social significance' of religious beliefs, practices and organisations. Secularisation is said to be a result of the social changes brought about by modern, urban, industrial society.

The founding fathers of sociology predicted secularisation:

• Comte - science was the final stage in the development of human thought
• Weber - modern society would be age of technology , rationality and burreaucracy, rationality and efficiency sweep away myth and magic.

UK church membership had fallen by over 1 million from 1992 to 2013

Attendance at church ceremonies such as baptisms and marriages has also fallen.

Measuring secularisation by chirch attendance has limits:

• People may attend church for social reasons but do not believe in God.
• Davie - believing without belonging, the 2011 census found that 59.3% of people in England and Wales still identified themselves as christians.
• There was never a 'golden age' of religion

Pluralism is the idea that society is very - religious pluralism had both created and been influenced by diversity in types of religious organisations and beliefs in society.

Some sociologists see pluralism as evidence against secularisation.

• The increase of New Age movements can be seen as proof that sacred is becoming important again - this is called rescralisation.
• Pluralism is evidence of religion being transformed, it shows a trend towards individuation - people being free to search for their own religious meanings

Other sociologists see pluralism as supporting evidence for secularisation:

• pluralism gives people choice - people might feel freerer to reject religion
• The proportion of those who have joined new religious movements is small compared to the whole population. 

Lyotard - people have lost faith in the 'metanarratives' of organised religion 

Baumans - a religious vaccuum has been left behind - a 'crisis of meaning' - tis vaccuum is being filled by new and diverse types of religiosity.

Supernatural belief is less of a force in society.

Weber predicted descralisation in his idea of disenchantment.

Bruce - sees science and rational explanations as underminding religion

The death of a loved one, injustice, natural disasters and terrorist attacks can lead to prayer and faith.

 Modern science cant explain everything to everyones satisfaction.

Diferentiation is where society becomes more specialised so each institution in society has fewer functions i.e. the church used to have a significant educadtional function.

Disengagement is when the church becomes seperated from the state.

Parsons claims that although the church may have less functions and disengaged it can still be significant in everyday life and encouraged shared values in society.

secularisation of religious institutions is where the church becomes less religious to fit in with society.

Herberg - church attendance shows a commitment to community not religion 

The New Christian Right however have not compromised thier views to fit in with society.

Surveys show high levels of religiosity but quantative measurements of church attendance are low.

To measure wether religious is now less important you have to measure it against the past.

Some sociologists suggest however that there was not real golden age of religion in which everyone in society was religious and attended church purely for religious purposes.

Research into secularisation is mainly ethnocentric