Secularisation

• Crockett - In 1851, 40%+ of adult population attended church on Sundays.
• Wilson - Western societies undergoing long-term secularisation, religion losing significance
• BUT secularisation may not be universal as religion hasn't necessarily declined in everywhere.

Church attendance today:

• Only 6% of adult population attended church on Sundays in 2005, halving since 1960s.
• Sunday school attendance, church weddings, baptisms declining.
• Overall religious affiliation declining. Since 1983 adults with no religion risen from 1/3 to 1/2.
• Small organisations growing, Catholics increasing due to E-European immigration.
• 80 years of surveys show decline in belief in God, Jesus, afterlife and the Bible.

Bruce - 'steady and unremitting decline of religion':

• Less influence, now relegated to the private sphere of the family.
• The state has taken over functions the church used to perform, e.g. schooling.
• He predicts the Methodist church will fold by 2030, CofE will be a small voluntary organisation.

1. Rationalisation - Weber:

• C16th Protestant Reformation undermined religious worldview of Middle Ages, bringing a modern rational scientific outlook.
• Brought new worldview that saw God existing above and outside the world, not intervening. The world became disenchanted.
• Events no longer explained as work of supernatural forces but of natural forces.
• Through reason and science the laws of nature can be discovered, no need for religious explanations. Therefore science can grow and develop,
• Bruce - technological worldview has replaced religious explanations.

2. Structural differentiation:

• Parsons - it occurs with industrialisation as specialised institutions begin to carry out functions performed by a single institution, e.g. church.
• Bruce - religion separated from wider society and privatised in the home and family.
• Church and state separate in modern society, so the church loses political power.

3. Social and cultural diversity:

• Wilson - in pre-industrial society, local communities shared rituals that expressed shared values, but industrialisation destroys these communities and so destroys religions base.
• Bruce - industrialisation creates large urban centres with diverse beliefs, undermining the believability of religion.
• BUT Aldridge says local communities not necessary for religion, e.g. Jewish communities.

4. Religious diversity:

• Berger - growing number and variety of religious organisations means no one has the monopoly of truth, and this undermines religions 'plausibility structure'.
  
• Bruce - difficult to live in a world with such a wide range of incompatible beliefs.

5. Cultural defence and cultural transition:

• Defence - religion providing a focus for the defence of a group identity in a struggle against an external force.
  
• Transition - provides a community for ethnic groups living in a different country or culture.

Wilson - in 1962 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays, but as an expression of the 'American way of life' rather than of religious beliefs.

1. Declining church attendance:

• Hadaway et al - in Ohio, attendance level in opinion polls 83% higher than the number actually counted.

2. Secularisation from within:

• Bruce - in American emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs has declined, religion has become a form of therapy instead.
• Religion has remained popular by becoming less religious, purpose changed from seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in the world.

3. Religious diversity and relativism:

• Absolutism has been eroded, acceptance of other beliefs undermines the assumption that our own views are absolutely true.