Topic 3: secularisation

• Comte


  believed that industrialisation and the growth of science would lead to secularisation
• Bruce's technological world view


  religion now only focuses on the areas that science cannot explain because the church has lost wider influence as a result of science and technology
• Durkheim


  religion won't die but will decline due to its loss of welfare functions which is now fulfilled by other things
• Weber - rationalisation


  people act in terms of rational and pursuit of goals rather than emotions.

  e.g. Calvinism (religion) leading to capitalism
• David Martin - disengagement


  separation between the church and the state weakens the power of religion
• Parsons - Structural differentiation


  religion has lost many functions with the evolution of society so has become more specialised to giving meaning to life and is at the heart of morlaity and ethics
• Bruce's plausibility


  in past smaller and more isolated communities, there was little challenge to people's religion. When communities mixed and became exposed to other one true religions, plausibility was undermined
• Berger


  communities 'sacred canopy' where the church had no competition has been lost due to new alternative religions to choose from.
• Bruce - times when secularisation is revered


  cultural defence

  cultural transition
• example of cultural defence

  popularity of Catholicism in Poland before the fall of communism
• examples of cultural transition

  immigrants tend to be drawn to groups with the same religion or culture as them to provide support and community
• Christianity in the 2021 census in England and Wales


  46%

  first time it was less than half the population
• Shamanism in 2021 census


  increased from 650 in 2011 to 8,000 in 2021
• Hadaway et al


  headcounts at services found that levels of attendance claimed in interviews was 83% higher than headcounts estimates
• Lynd and Lynd - erosion of absolutism


  found that in 1924, 94% of churchgoing young people agreed that 'Christianity is the one true religion' but in 1977, only 41% agreed