Secularisation

• Seculisation in Britian

  Based on 1851 cencus of religious worship

  Crockett - that 40% or more of the adult population atteneded church then.Since then there have been some changes:

  • A decline in proportion of the population going to church or belonging to one
  • An increase in the average age of church goers
  • Fewer baptisms and church weddings
  • A decline in the number holding traditional christian beliefs
  • Greater diverity of religions
• Seclisation in Britain:

  Wilson argued that westen societies had undergoing a long term seculisation

  • He defined secularsation as " the process whereby relgious beliefs,practices and lose social significance"

  ↳ e.g church attendance in England & Wales has fallen from 40% in mid 19th centuary to 1960s in 10%-15%

  • Church attandence, weddings and baptisms also fallen
• Church attandance today

  • Trends wilson identified continued till 2020 when 4% of the adult population attanded church on sundays
  • Attandance at large organisations - e.g C of E has declined more than small organisations which are remaining stable or growing

  ↳ However they haven't made up for the decine in larger ones

  • In 1971 59% weddings are in churches
  • Baptims have fallen steadily - while infant baptims have declined those of older children has increased
  • Bogus baptims - research inicates this is bc many faith schools whih are better will only take baptised children
• Relgious affliation today

  Relgious affliation is the membership of or identfication with relgion

  Evidence indicates declining affliation

  • From 1983 to 2018 adults with no religion rose from 1/3 to over 1/2
  • Those who identify as christian fell by 40%
  • Number of catholics slightly increased due to Easten European immagration
  • Those belonging to non christian religions (mainly islam) have increased due to immagration and higer birth rates
• Religious institutions today

  • Influnence of religion as a social institution has declined
  • Still some influence - 26 bishops in the house of lords and have some influence on law making
  • The state has taken over many functions that the church used to perform

  ↳ Until 19th centuary churches provided education the state does this now.Although there are some faith schools they're mostly state-funded and conform to state regulations
• The Clergy

  • One measure of the institutional weakness is the number of clergy.During 20th centuary catholic priests fell from 45,000 to 34,000 between 1965 and 2020
  • Clergy are also an ageing workforce
  • Lack of clergy on the ground in local communties means that day to day influence of churhes is reduced
• Explainations of Secularisation: Rationalisation - Weber

  • Rationalisation refers to the process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace relgious ones
  • Protestant reformation started a process undermined the religious worldview of Middle ages and replaced it scientfically outlook on modern society
• Explainations of Secularisation: Structual differentation - Parsons

  • Parsons defines structual differentation as a process of seculisation that occurs with the develpoment of indvidual society
  • Separate specialised institutions carry out functions that were previously performed by a single institutons
  • Parsons sees this having happened to religion - it dominated pre-industrial society and now its smaller more specialised instition
• Explainations of Secularisation: A technological worldview

  • Bruce argues the growth of technological worldview has largely replaced religions or supernatral explainations of why things happen
  • A technological worldview little leaves room for religious explainations which only survie were technology is least effective - e.g praying at a time of illness
• Explainations of Secularisation: Disengagement - Parsons

  • Argues structural differential leads to disengaement of religion its functions are distributed to other institutions and it becomes disconnected from wider society
• Explainations of Secularisation: Privitisation - Bruce

  • Bruce agrees that religion has become separated from wider society and lost some of its functions - it has become privitised (confined to the home)
  • Religious beliefs are now a matter of personal choice
• Explainations of Secularisation: Social and cultral Diversity

  • Decine in community - move from pre-industrial society brought declinein community which contibutes to decline in community
  • Wilson argues pre-industrial communtities have shared values and had collective religious rituals and symbols
• Explainations of Secularisation: Industrialsation - Bruce

  • Bruce sees indutrialsation as undermining the concensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities
  • Small close-knit communties give way to large loose-knit communities with diverse belieds and values
  • Social and geographical mobility not only breaks up communities but brings diversity from bring people with different backgrounds together
• Critisms of decline in relgion - Alderidge

  • Religion can be a source of identity worldwide
  • Some religious communties are virtual communities that interact through global media
  • Pentacostal and other religious groups often flourish in supposadly 'impersonal' urban areas
• Religious Diversity - Berger

  Berger argues there is a trend towards religious diveristy where instead of there being one religious organosations there is many interpretations
• Religious Diversity - Beger: The sacred canopy

  • In the middle ages everyone follwed catholic church it had monopoly of truth - as a result everyone lived under a sacred canopy (set of beliefs shared by all)
  • This gave the church greater plausibilty - it was unchallenged and unquestioned
  • Changed with protestant reformation when it broke away from catholic church (still happens now) - this causes religious diversity no church has monopoly of truth
  • Society is no longer unified under single sacred canopy by one church instead theres religious pluraity
• Religious Diversity - Berger: Plausibility structure (Reason for secular)

  • Berger argues this creates a crisis of credibiltiy for religion
  • Diversity undermines religious 'plausibility structure' - the reason why people find relgion believable
  • When there a lots of alternative religions people question all of them and this erodes certanties of traditional religion
• Critisms of Religious Diversity

  • Berger has changed his view - now argues that diversity and choise actually stimulates intrest and participation in religion
  • Beckford argues that religios diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs that is not inevitable. Opposing views an have a strengthing effect on a religious groups committment
• Cultral defence

  • Counters securlarisation theory
  • Cultral defence is where relgion provides a focal point for the defence of national,ethnic,local or group identity in a struggle against an external force such as hostile foreign power

  ↳ e.g popularity of catholism in poland before fall of communism
• Cultral transistion

  • Relgion provides suppourt and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrant to a different country and culture
  • Bruce argues relgion survives in such situations bc it is a focus of group identity
  • Thus these identities don't disprove secularisation but show relgion is likely survive where it performs functions other than realting indviduals to the supernatral
  • Counter argument to secularisation theory