9. Explaining & Criticising Secularisation

• What did Berger say to criticise the idea of secularisation?


  Religion has become less prevalent & more subtle

  Mistaken for a lack of religion
• What did Bruce say about Cultural Defence to criticise secularisation?


  Communities combine societal identity & religion to protect both (cultural defence)
• What does Aldridge criticise about the idea that there is a decline of religious community? (2)


  Community doesn't have to be in a particular area

  Some religious communities are imagined communities (interact via media)
• What did Bruce say is a positive of social & cultural diversity?

  Brings together people from different backgrounds, creating diversity
• What did Bruce say is a negative of social & cultural diversity?

  Social & geographical mobility breaks up communities
• Structural differentiation (Parsons)


  As religious ideas lose power, the institutions themselves lose power too
• Technological worldview (Bruce)


  Bruce argues that a technological worldview has largely replaced religious explanations of why things happen

  Religious worldview only survive in areas where technology is least affective e.g. Praying for help if you are suffering from an incurable illness
• Disenchantment

  The process of rationalism taking over society & decreasing religious explanation
• Why were religious explanations no longer needed?

  Using science

  Humans could discover how the world works and control it through technology
• What was the new worldview from the Protestant Reformation?

  -God is transcendent and doesn't intervene -Events explained by the predictable workings of natural forces
• What was the medieval Catholic worldview?

  God & other spiritual beings were believed to be present & active in the world

  Change the course of events through their supernatural powers

  People could challenge them through prayers, fasting etc
• What did Weber say the Protestant Reformation caused?

  Rationalism in the west
• Rationalism

  Rational ways of thinking & acting come to replace religious ones