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Secularisation - Coggle Diagram
Secularisation
Explanations of secularisation
Weber: rationalisation
The process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones - western society has undergone a process of rationalisation in recent centuries.
Weber (1905) - the Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther in the 16th century started a process of rationalisation of life in the Middle Ages and replaced it with rational scientific outlook found in modern society.
The medieval Catholic worldview that dominated Europe saw the world as an 'enchanted garden' - God and other spiritual forces/beings such as the angels were believed to be present and active in this world, changing events and the course of the future.
Humans could try to influence these beings and forces by magical means - charms, prayers, pilgrimages - in order to ensure a good harvest, protect against disease and so on.
Disenchantment
The Protestant Reformation brought a new worldview - instead of the interventionist God of medieval Catholicism, Protestantism saw God as transcendent; he existed above and beyond, or outside, our world.
Although God had created the Earth, he did not intervene in it - he left it to run its course according to the laws of nature.
Watchmaker analogy - made the world, set it in motion and then it ran according to its own principles and power.
Events no longer can be explained as the work of unpredictable supernatural beings - things happened due to predictable workings of natural forces. RATIONALITY
Using reason and science humans could discover the laws of nature and understand why things happen - even control it through technology. No longer a need for religion as an explanation of the world and how it works, the world was no longer an
ENCHANTED GARDEN
.
Protestant Reformation removes the magic nature of the world - we can explain and understand the world in a new, deeper sense. Allows science to thrive.
A technological worldview
Bruce (2011) - the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen - when a plane crashes with the loss of many lives, we are unlikely to regard it as the work of evil spirits or God's punishment of the wicked. We look at scientific and technological explanations instead.
Leaves little room for religious explanations in everyday life - only survive in areas where technology is least effective - we may pray if we are suffering from an illness for which scientific medicine has no cure.
Although scientific explanations do not challenge religion directly, they have reduced the scope for religious explanations. Encourages people to take religion less seriously.
Structural differentiation
Parsons (1951) - a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society.
Separate, specialised institutions develop to carry out functions that were previously performed by a single institution.
Religion dominated pre-industrial society - with industrialisation it became a smaller and more specialised institution.
Disengagment
Structural differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion - functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society; church loses influence on education, social welfare and law.
Privatisation
Bruce agrees - religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions - become privatised. + confined to the private sphere of the home and the family.
Religious beliefs are now largely a matter of personal choice and religious institutions have lost influence over wider society. Traditional rituals have lost meaning.
Even where it does have religion it must listen to the requirements of the state - teachers in faith schools must hold qualifications that are recognised by the state.
Social and cultural diversity
Decline of community
The move from pre-industrial to industrial society brings about the decline of community - contributes to the decline of religion. Wilson argues that in pre-industrial communities shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour.
When religion lost its basis in stable local communities, it lost its vitality and hold over individuals.
Industrialisation
Bruce - industrialisation undermines the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together.
Small close-knit communities give way to large loose-knit communities with diverse beliefs and culture. Geographical mobility breaks up communities and brings people from different faiths together.
Diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles undermines religion
People have different beliefs and cannot avoid knowing such.
Bruce - the plausibility of beliefs is undermined by alternative belief systems contradicting eachother.
Individualism undermines religion because the plausibility of religion depends on the existence of a practising community of believers - religion and practice will decline.
Criticisms
Aldridge - a community does not need to be a particular area:
Religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale - Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities for example.
Some religious communities are imagined communities that interact through the use of global media.
Pentecostal and other religious groups often flourish in 'impersonal' urban areas.
Religious diversity
Berger (1969) - another cause of secularisation is the trend towards religious diversity - instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one interpretation of faith there are many.
The sacred canopy
In the Middle Ages the Catholic church held an absolute monopoly - no competition - everyone lived under a single sacred canopy of set of beliefs shared by all. Gave these beliefs greater plausibility - no rivals.
Protestant Reformation - protestant churches broke away from the catholic church in 16th century - number and variety of religious organisations has continued to grow.
No church can now claim an unchallenged monopoly of the truth.
Society is no longer unified under one single sacred canopy provided with one church. Religious diversity creates a plurality of life worlds.
Plausibility structure
Berger - this creates a crisis of credibility for religion - diversity undermines religion's 'plausibility structure' - reasons why people find it believeable.
When there are alternative versions of religion to choose from people are likely to question all of them and this erodes the absolute certainties of religion. Religious beliefs become relative rather than absolute.
Bruce sees the trend towards religious diversity as the most important cause of secularisation - 'It is difficult to live in a world that treats as equally valid a large number of incompatible beliefs, without coming to suppose that there is no one truth'
Cultural defence and transition
Bruce - two counter-trends that seem to go against secularisation theory - higher than average levels of religious participation.
Cultural defence - religion provides a focal point for defence or nation, ethnic, local or group identity in a struggle against an external force such as a hostile foreign power. E.g. popularity of catholicism before the fall of communism in Poland, resurgence of Islam before revolution in Iran in 1979.
Cultural transition - religion provides support and community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different community and culture. Herberg's study of relgiion and immigration in USA.
Religion survives in these situations - focus for group identity. Do not disprove secularisation - religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relating individuals to the supernatural.
Criticisms
Berger (1999) - argues that diversity and choice stimulate interest and participation in religion - growth of evangelicism in Latin America and the New Christian Right in the USA point to continuing vitality of religion.
Beckford (2003) - religious diversity will lead to some question/abandon of religion - this is not inevitable.
Secularisation in Britain
Crocket (1998)
1851 Census of Religious Worship - Crocket estimates that 40% or more of the adult population of Britain attended church on Sundays. Much higher figure than today.
Major changes in religion in the UK since then:
Decline in the proportion of the population going to church or belonging to one.
An increase in the average age of churchgoers.
Fewer baptisms and church weddings.
A decline in the numbers holding traditional Christian beliefs.
Greater diversity - more non-christian religions.
Bryan Wilson (1966) argued that western societies have been undergoing a long term process of secularisation.
"the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance"
Church attendance in England and Wales fallen from 40% of population in 19th century to 10-15% by the 1960s.
Church attendance today
The trends Wilson identified have continued - by 2015 about 5% of the adult population attended church on Sundays.
Churchgoing in the UK has more than halved since Wilson's research in the 1960s.
Fell from 1.6 million in 1960 to under 0.8 million in 2013.
English Church Census (2006) shows that attendances at large organisations such as the Church of England and the Catholic Church have declined more than smaller organisations.
While church weddings and baptisms remain more popular than attendance at Sunday services, here too there are downward trends.
in 1971, 60% of weddings were in the Church but in 2012 the proportion was only 30%.
Bogus Baptisms
- while infant baptisms have declined, those of older children have increased - people baptising children so that they can attend more prestigious faith schools.
Religious affiliation today
A person's religious affiliation - membership or identification with a religion.
A continuing decline in number of people affiliated to a religion - between 1983 and 2014 the percentage of adults with no religion rose from around a third to around a half.
Evidence about religious beliefs from 80 years of survey shows that religious belief is declining along with the decline in church attendance and membership.
Decline in the belief in a personal god.
The influence of religion as a social institution has also declined - although the church has some influence on public life this has declined significantly since the 19th century.
26 Church of England bishops sit in the House of Lords - influence on lawmaking.
The state has taken over many of the functions that the church used to do - education.
One measure of the decline in religion is the number of clergy -fell from 45000 to 34000 in 20th century - if it kept pace with population growth there would be 80000 members of clergy.
Also an ageing workforce - only 12% of clergy are under 40 years old.
Bruce (2002) - all evidence points to a steady decline in religiosity that cannot be fixed. If current trends continue, the methodist church will fold around 2030 and by then the church of england will merely be a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property.