Secular ownership of Christianity

• What is one way the process of secularisation may be measured?

  By asking people about their attendance at public acts of worship
• the % of people who attend church regularly is decreasing, so on that basis, Britain is increasingly becoming a secular country HOWEVER…?

  many people who do not attend church nevertheless feel a sense of attachment to a local church building - it may represent where they were married or where relatives were buried etc
• therefore, the sense of ownership of a church building, and sometime the defence of that building if it is threatened with closure, may indicate what?

  that society is less secular than expected
• Christianity, it can be argued is a naturally secularising religion, how?

  it follows the example of Jesus, who taught that caring for the poor and healing the sick (both secular operations) take priority over obedience to religious rules
• because of this…?

  the secular vocations of teaching and healing, which gave now become separated from organised religion, are a form of secularisation that is in line with a radical interpretation of Christianity’s earliest message