Secularisation

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Secularisation in Britain

  • Bryan Wilson - Church weddings, baptisms and Sunday school attendance has declined.
  • By 2015 only 5% of the adult population attended church on Sunday which is 1/2 of the 1960's.
  • Church weddings and baptisms remain more popular than attendance to Sunday mass, yet the number of weddings in a church fell from 60% in 1971 to 30% in 2012.
  • 'Bogus baptisms'  are popular because faith schools tend to be high performing, baptisms are an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of Christian commitment. 
  • British Social Attitudes Survey - Between 1983 and 2014 the % of adults with no religion rose from around 1/3 to 1/2.
  • BBC Survey - Over 1/2 of all secondary schools in Wales failed to comply with the legal requirement of a daily act of collective worship of a 'broadly Christian character'.
  • The number of clergy is in sharp decline, it's at 34,000 when it should be at 80,000, the number of Catholic priests has fallen by 1/3 from 1965 to 2011. 
  • Steve Bruce - By 3030 the Methodist church will fold & the COFE will be a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property. 
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Explanations of secularisation

  • Disengagement - Parsons notes that religious institutions have less power & social influence, don't provide much education anymore as even 'faith schools' have to follow state regulations, little influence on politics. Religion is 'privatised' (Bruce) because of structural differentiation caused by industrialisation, smaller institutions developed to carry out the functions of religion. 
  • Rationalisation - Weber, the religious worldview of the Middle Ages replaced by the rational scientific outlook in modern society due to the Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther in the C16th. Disenchantment occured as people stopped explaining events in terms of supernatural & no longer saw the world as 'an enchanted' garden.
  • Science thrives, technological advancements have the power to control nature & undermine religion. Bruce also refers to this as a 'technological worldview' leaving little religion to survive in areas where technology is least effective. 
  • Social and cultural diversity - Wilson believes decline in community means that the shared values & collective rituals of religion have lost it's importance over individuals. Bruce notes that industrialisation undermined the consensus of religious beliefs that held small rual communities together due to social & geographical mobility which created diversity. 
  • Bruce - Plausibility of belief is undermined by alternative religions, none can claim the monopoly of truth.
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Criticisms

  • Aldridge - Religion is a source of identity worldwide for Jewish and Muslim communities, for example, some religious communities are 'imagined' as they interact through global media and Pentecostal religious groups flourish in 'impersonal' urban areas. 
  • Bruce - Migrants use religion for cultural defence and cultural transitition, only when religion performs the function of keeping a group identity alive not a belief in the supernatural. 
  • Berger - Diversity and choice stimulate an interest and participation in religion, the growth of evangelicism in Latin America and the New Christian Right in the USA point to religious vitality. 
  • Beckford - Opposing religious views can strengthen a religious group's commitment to its existing beliefs rather than undermining them, so religious diversity can be positive. 
  • Evidence of falling church attendance don't count people who have a religion & believe but don't go to church, so it's not always valid data. 
  • Religion may have declined in Europe but not globally, so secularisation isn't universal.
  • The 'golden age' of faith in the past didn't exist because many Victorians only went to church because of societal pressure, Bruce says it was a sign of middle class respectablitity. 
  • Religious diversity increases religious participation as it increases choice, there is no overall downward trend and people use religion in various ways.
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Secularisation in America

  • Wilson (1962) 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays. However, argued that this was more an expression of the “American way of life” than deep religion belief.
  • Bruce believes that people may exaggerate in opinions polls because going to church is seen as socially desireable, if 40% of Americans went to church the churches would be full, so the decline is being masked. 
  • Secularisation from within - Bruce argues emphasis on God and Christian beliefs have declined & that religion has remained popular by becoming less religious & more psychological, as a form of therapy so there is less commitment (going to church) required. 
  • Religious diversity -Bruce identifies a trend towards practical relativism involving American Christians accepting that others are entitled to hold different beliefs. In 1977 the number of young people that believed 'Christianity is the one true religion and all people should be converted to it' went from 94% to 41%.
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