Secularisation

• Secularisation


  The process where religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance
• In 1851, 40% or more of the adult population of Britain attended church on Sundays, which led some to claim that the 19th century was a 'golden age' of religiosity
• Western societies have been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation
• There have been some major changes in religion in the UK since the 19th century: a fall in the proportion of the population attending church, an increase in the average age of churchgoers, and greater religious diversity
• Church attendance today


  • Only about 4% of the adult population attended church on Sundays in 2020, halving since the 1960s and likely to fall further
  • Sunday school attendance, church weddings and baptisms are declining
• Overall, religious affiliation (membership) is declining. Since 1983, adults with no religion have risen from a third to over a half, and those identifying as Christian have fallen by a 40%
• Some small organisations have grown. The number of Catholics has increased slightly, due to East European immigration. Non-Christian religions have also increased, due to immigration and higher birth rates
• Evidence from 80 years of surveys shows a decline in belief in God, in Jesus as the son of God and in Christian teachings about the afterlife and the Bible
• The influence of religion as a social institution is declining. Religion once affected every aspect of life, but now is relegated to the private sphere of individual and family
• The state has taken over many of the functions the church used to perform, e.g. schooling
• The number of clergy fell from 45,000 in 1900 to 34,000 in 2000, while the population increased in size, reducing the church's local, day-to-day influence
• Bruce predicts that the Methodist Church will fold by 2030 and the Church of England will be merely a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property
• Rationalisation


  The process by which rational ways of thinking and acting replace religious ones
• The 16th century Protestant Reformation undermined the religious worldview of the Middle Ages, replacing it with a modern rational scientific outlook
• Disenchantment


  The Protestant Reformation brought a new worldview that saw God as existing above and outside the world, not as intervening in it. The world had become disenchanted, left to run according to the laws of nature
• Through reason and science, humans could discover the laws of nature, and understand and predict how the world works. Religious explanations of the world are no longer needed
• Structural differentiation


  A process that occurs with industrialisation as many specialised institutions develop to carry out the different functions previously performed by a single institution, such as the church
• Religion has become separated from wider society and privatised in the home and family. Religious beliefs are now largely a matter of personal choice, while traditional rituals and symbols have lost meaning
• Church and state are usually separate in modern society, so the church loses political power
• Social and cultural diversity

  Industrialisation creates large, impersonal, loose-knit urban centres with diverse beliefs, values and lifestyles. This diversity undermines the believability of religion
• The rise of individualism leads to a decline in community-based religious belief and practice
• Religious diversity


  The trend towards a growing number and variety of religious organisations, each with a different version of the truth. This undermines religion's 'plausibility structure' or believability
• It is difficult to live in a world containing a large number of incompatible beliefs without concluding that none of them is wholly true
• Cultural defence


  Religion provides a focus for the defence of national or ethnic group identity in a struggle against an external force
• Cultural transition


  Religion provides a sense of community for ethnic groups living in a different country and culture
• In 1962, Wilson found that 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays, but this was more an expression of the 'American way of life' than of religious beliefs
• Evidence suggests that the tendency to exaggerate churchgoing is a recent development in the USA
• American religion has remained popular by becoming less religious - it has become secularised from within. Its purpose has changed from seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in this world
• Absolutism has been eroded - we now live in a society where many people hold views that are completely different to ours, undermining our assumption that our own views are absolutely true