Secularisation

• There is 3 arguments when it comes to secularisation;

  • Religion is declining
  • Not declining
  • Religion is changing/developing
• Wilson defines secularisation as the process whereby religion beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance
• No religion is increasing in the UK, there has been a 23 million increase in 120 years
• Non-Christian religions are increasing
• All Christian faiths have decreased by 0.5 million over the last 130 years
• Bruce predicts that if current trends continue the Methodist Church will not exist by 2030, and the Church of England will be a small voluntary institution with a lot of heritage property
• Rationalisation refers to the shift from religious ways of thinking to rational
• Weber claimed the Protestant reformation began the rationalisation process
• Protestants found God to be transcendent so all processes could be explained by science rather then faith. This was the beginning of disenchantment according to Weber
• Bruce supports Weber, he argues that a technological worldview has replaced religion, meaning it is only reserved for times without explanation
• Parsons argues that the process of privatisation occurs in industrialised societies
• Privatisation according to Parsons is were separate, specialised institutions develop to carry out functions that were previously only carried out by a single one
• Wilson argues a loss of community since industrialisation has contributed to the loss of religion
• Bruce says since industrialisation communities have become more flexible and move about so they have to know about other religions and have decreased their beliefs as a result
• Aldridge criticises Bruce and Wilson because religion can be a source of identity worldwide (Jewish, Muslim etc). Some religious communities interact by 'imagined communities' (online). Pentecostal groups flourish in impersonal urban areas
• Berger claims the increase in religious organisations since the protestant reformation and arrival of other religions have caused Catholics to loose a 'monopoly of the Truth'
• Heelas and Woodhead's The Kendal Project study critics Berger
• The Kendal project distinguished between Congregational domain (traditional evangelical) and holistic milieu (Spirituality and New Age)
• The Kendal Project found that traditional churches were decreasing while the New Age and evangelical Church was increasing