Secularisation Theory
Definition by Wilson: the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institution lose social significance
Empirical Evidence
Religious affiliation today
Religious Belief today
Church attendance today
Religious institution
Sunday attendance in the Church of England
1.6 million in 1960 to 0.8 million in 2013
Church Weddings and Baptism
60% in 1971 to 30% in 2012
Bogus Baptism
Older kids are getting baptised as an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of Christian commitment
This refers to their membership of or identification in a religion
People with no religion
1/3 in 1983 to 1/2 in 2014
significant decline in belief in personal god, Jesus as the son of God and in Christian teachings about afterlife and the Bible.
Bruce argues that 'whether we measure church membership, church attendance, the popularity of religious ceremonies to mark rites of passage or religious beliefs, we find a steady an unremitting decline'.
Cergy
Aging workforce
In the 20th century- numbers feel from 45,000 to 34,000.
Explanations of secularisation
Parsons: Structural differentiation
Max Weber: Rationalisation
Dienchantment
Bruce: technological worldview
Social and cultural diversity
Religious Diversity
Decline of community
Industrialisation
Plausibility structure
Berger: sacred canopy
Bruce: Cultural defence and transition
Cultural defence
cultural transition
Criticism
Berger: diversity and choice actually increases participation in religion
religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an an external force
Provides support and a sense of community for ethnic minorities
Religion is most likely to survive where it performs function other than relating individuals to the supernatural
Beckford:opposing views can have the effect of strengthening a religious group's commitment.
Wilson: pre industrial communities, shared values expressed through collective rituals, Religion lost its basis in stable local communities
Diversity of occupations, culture and lifestyles undermines religion
Shift from small close knit rural communities to large loose knit urban communities
Berger: When there are alternatives versions of religion to choose, people are likely to question all of them
Catholicism to Protestant reformation= religious diversity
Definition: Process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society
Bruce:Privatisation
Disengagement
religion separated from the wider socierty
functions are transferred to other institutions. Loses influence
Began with Protestant reformation
squeezes out magical and religious ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process
Scientific explanations so not challenge relgion directly
encourages people to take religion less seriously
Secularisation in America
Secularisation from within
Religious Diversity
Declining church attendance
Bruce: practical relativism
acceptance of the view that others are entitled to hold beliefs that are different to one's own.
seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in this world.
Kirk Hadaway: exaggerated opinion polls