secularisation

• Definition- the decline in religion and loss of religion's influence over state issues. Has occurred due to scientific and rational thought
• Evidence for secularisation in the UK: Organisation

  • From 2014 to 2021, there was a 14% decrease in active religious priests
  • The average age of clergy is increasing due to lack of recruitment for younger replacements
• Terry Sanderson

  • The Church of England is losing it's 'core business'- people who attend services such as christenings, weddings and funerals are now increasingly abandoning them to pursue civil alternatives that are secular
• Supporting Sanderson's claims- Weddings

  • In 2019, 18% of weddings were religious ceremonies compared to 1962, when 70% of weddings were religious ceremonies
• Supporting Sanderson- Baptism

  • 1 in 3 infants were baptised in 1980, but in 2011 it was 1 in 10
  • Number of baptisms in the Catholic church has halved compared to those in 1964
• Supporting Sanderson- Funerals

  • in 2023, 17% of funerals were religious ceremonies
• Evidence for secularisation in the UK: beliefs

  • UK census- from 2011 to 2021 there was a 14% decrease in Christianity
  • UK census- from 2011 to 2021 there was a 10% increase in those who had no religion
• Evidence for secularisation in the UK: Practices

  • Church attendance has been declining since the 1950s, in 2015 only 5% attended regularly
• Explanations for secularisation: Steve Bruce 'technological world view'

  • The public now defer to science for explanations of the world
  • There is an expectation that beliefs and answers to the questions we want need to be answered with evidence
• Explanations for secularisation: Structural differentiation and disengagement (Parsons)

  • Parsons' concept of structural differentiation- the emergence of specialised institutions such as education and media
  • The need has arisen for such institutions through societal change (schools providing specialist skills in response to industrialisation and growth in technology)
  • The government and welfare state have taken over some of the functions of religion- religion does not perform its traditional functions. The Church has undergone disengagement
• Explanations for secularisation: Individualisation (Steve Bruce)

  • The Church used to be central to everyday life
  • Religion no longer exerts the same control over communities
  • Being religious is now something left to individual choice in the UK
• Against secularisation: social solidarity and cultural defence (Abby Day)

  • She suggests that in the UK, some people affiliate with religion because they perceive this to being part of the culture
  • Individuals may have no religious beliefs but they believe that being 'British' is important to their identity so claim to be Christian
• Explanations for secularisation: Religious pluralism and diversity (Berger)

  • The growth of the number of religious organisations that exist today
  • In the past, there was a shared dominant ideology
  • Relates to the postmodern view- religion like all meta-narratives have been undermined by their truths becoming relative
• Against secularisation: Postmodernism

  • New religious movements and new age beliefs have reinvigorated religion within the postmodern world
  • Berger- distances himself from his original view saying that religious competition and pluralism stimulates interest in religion rather than undermine it
• Against secularisation: the role of globalisation

  • Helland's 2 ways people engage with religion on the internet- religion online and online religion
  • Mass migration