secularisation

    Cards (12)

    • how is secularisation defined?
      the process by which religious practices, institutions and thinking are in decline
    • what are the overall trends of secularisation?
      • decline in the population who attend or belong to a church
      • increase in average age of church goers
      • fewer baptisms and church goers
      • greater diversity in non-Christian religions in the uk
    • church attendance:
      Wilson - argues western societies over the last few decades have been going through a long term process of secularisation, he uses church attendance stats to support his view:
      1800 - 40%
      1960 - 10%
      2015 - 5%
    • church weddings:
      fewer people are getting married in churches
      1971 - 60% of weddings took place in a church
      2012 - 30% of weddings took place in a church
    • religious affiliation:
      • between 1883 and 2014 the percentage of adults with no religion rose from around a third to around 1/2
      • other Christians include denomination such as Methodists and Baptists, this category remained static since 1983 at 17% of the population
    • religious institutions today:
      • the state has taken over many of the functions that the church used to perform, whereas religion once pervaded to the private sphere of the individual and the family
      • the clergy- one measure of the institutional weakness of the churches is the number of clergy, during the 20th century this fell from 45,000 to 34,000, had it kept pace with the population growth the clergy would now number over 80,000
      • the number of catholic priests fell by a third between 1965 and 2011
      • the clergy are also an ageing workforce, only 12% of Anglican clergy are under 40, as a result churches have reached a tipping point with a sharp decline in the number of clergy to be expected in near future
      • Woodhead says- to put is bluntly there are no longer enough troupers left to keep the show on the road
      • Bruce agrees with Wilson that all the evidence of secularisation has now been pointing in the same direction for many years
    • Max weber- rationalisation:
      • rationalisation refers to the process by which rational thought have replaced religious ones
      • Weber argues that the protestant reformation begun by Martin Luther in the 16th century started a process of rationalisation of life in the West, this undermined the religious worldview of the Middle ages and replaced it with the rational scientific outlook found in modern society
      • for Weber the medieval Catholic worldview that dominated Europe saw the world as an 'enchanted garden'
      • people practise this by magical means such as prayers and pilgrimages or wearing charms
      • however the protestant reformation brought a new worldview, and it begins the 'disenchantment of the world- it squeezes out magical and religious ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process that leads to the dominance of the rational mode of thought
    • A technological Worldview:
      • Bruce argues that the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen, for example when a plane crashes we don't regard it as the work of evil spirits we look for scientific explanations
      • a technological worldview leaves little room for religious explanation in every day life
      • Bruce concludes that although scientific explanations do not challenge religion directly, they have greatly reduced the scope for religious explanations
    • structural differentiation:
      • parsons defines structural differentiation as 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
      • Parsons sees this as having happened to religion- it dominated pre-industrial society, but with industrialisation it has become a smaller and more specialised institution
      • disengagement- parsons structural differentiation leads to the disengagement of religion, its functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society
      • privatisation- Bruce agrees that religion has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions, it as become privatised and confined to the private sphere of the home and family
    • social and cultural diversity:
      • decline of community- the move from pre-industrial to industrial society brings about the decline of community and this contributes to the decline of religion, Wilson argues that pre-industrial communities, shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour
      • industrialisation- Bruce sees industrialisation as undermining the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together
    • Criticisms:
      • the view that the decline of community causes the decline of religion is criticised
      • Aldridge points out that a community does not have to be in a particular area:
      • religion can be the source of identity on a worldwide scale
      • 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 says another cause of secularisation is the trend towards religious diversity where instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one interpretation of the faith, there are many
      • the sacred canopy- in the middle ages the catholic church held an absolute monopoly, it had no competition as a result everyone lived under a single sacred canopy or set of beliefs shared by all
      • however since the reformation society is no longer unified under the single sacred canopy
      • plausibility structure- Berger argues this creates a crisis of credibility for religion, diversity undermines religions plausibility structure- the reason why people find it believable
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