1950139
Description
Flashcards by elmo_salad, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by elmo_salad
almost 11 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Decline of religious practice - AO1 | -evidence for UK secularization strongest = church attendance statistics -church attendance dropped -attendance at religious ceremonies dramatically fallen -Wilson thinks these factors= evidence that religion and its moral values = little influence nowadays. |
| Decline of religious practice AO2 | interpretivist sociologists say be wary of these statistics as: -old stats probably unreliable as sophisticated data collection practices didnt exist -new stats can be unreliable as diff ROs employ diff counting methods -bellah -> those who attend church not necessarily practicing religious belief and those who do believe mightn't want to attend. |
| Disengagement Ao1 | - Wilson- church no longer involved in important areas of social life like politics + politicians don’t ensure their policies meet the approval of religious leaders. - Ppl more likely to taker moral direction from mass media than church - Public apathy to religion = now only has symbolic meaning - church occupies a marginal status in modern society. |
| Disengagement A02 | - religion still a major provider of education &welfare for poor. - media still shows a great interest in religious issues e.g. women priests - Some sociologists say that disengagement = probably a good thing as it means that churches can focus more effectively on their central role of providing moral goals for society to achieve. |
| Disenchantment AO1 | -Weber- increasing rationalisation of the world has squeezed out magical &religious ways of thinking & starts off the process that leads to the dominance of rational modes of thought. -enables science to thrive & provides the basis for technological advances that give humans more power to control nature. -This in turn undermines the religious worldview in which events can be explained in terms of the will of God |
| Disenchantment AO2 | -ppl’s belief in science also depends on irrational faith. Ppl don't often see the empirical evidence for science or understand it but accept it w/o question, as scientists have been elevated to high‑priest status in society. -Lyon -> the last 4 decades have been a period of re-enchantment, with the growth of unconventional beliefs, practices & spirituality. |
| Technological/scientific worldview AO1 | -Similar to Weber, Bruce argues that the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explans of why things happen. E.g. plane crash looks for scientific explans, unlikely to regard it as gods work. -concludes that although scientific explans don’t challenge religion directly, they have greatly reduced the scope for religious explans. |
| Technological/scientific worldview AO2 | - religious explans survive in areas where technological +scientific explans = less effective. E.g. we may prey for help if we’re suffering from an illness for which scientific medicine has no cure. |
| Disneyfication AO1 | - David Lyon’s ideas about the ‘Disneyfication’ of religion can also be used to support the idea that the nature of religion has been changed and compromised by increasingly secular societies. Disneyfication = process that diminishes human life by trivialising it or making taking part in i appear to be little more than a joke. In PM societies religion is forced to market +package itself in many different guises, for example the ‘electronic church’ on the internet +televangelism on TV, in order to compete with a whole host of other leisure products. Lyon suggests that religion has been disneyfied + packaged as a commodity , for sale in the spiritual supermarket where it jostles with other rival manufacturers to sell variations of the same product to a declining market. |
| Disneyfication AO2 | PMs claim that the growth of religious media +the electronic church is evidence against secularisation. However, research shows that people choose to view programmes that confirm their existing beliefs. It’s unlikely, therefore, that the religious media attract many new converts. Bruce argues that the consumerist religion of the type Lyon describes is weak religion- it has little effect on the lives of its followers. As such, he sees it as evidence of secularisation. |
| Secularisation from within AO1 | Bruce- the way American religion had adjusted to the modern world amounts to secularisation from within. The emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs has declined +American religion has been ‘psychologised’ or turned into a type of therapy. This change helped it to fit in with a secular society. In other words, American religion has become less religious in order to remain popular. The purpose of American religion has changed from seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvement in this world. |
| Secularisation from within AO2 | - Roof +McKinney argue that Bruce has ignored the growth of conservative Protestant religions (New Christian Right) which seem to combine a serious commitment to religious teachings, a strong element of theological doctrine + a refusal to compromise religious beliefs. As such, they directly contradict Bruce’s claims about secularisation within religious institutions. |
| The decline of metanarratives and the rise of ‘spiritual shopping AO1 | PMs like Lyotard argue that metanarratives like religion have lost their power to influence how ppl think about, interpret and explain the world in postmodern societies. ppl are now taking more control over their own lives +are less willing to be told what to believe religious authorities. Hervieu-Leger agrees with the idea that there’s been a dramatic decline in traditional institutional religion, caused by what she calls ‘cultural amnesia’- religion is no longer handed down from generation to generation through extended families +parish churches. Social equality has also undermined the traditional power of the church to impose religion on people from above. As a result, young ppl no longer inherit a fixed religious identity +they are ignorant of traditional religion. |
| The decline of metanarratives and the rise of ‘spiritual shopping AO2 | -religion itself hasn't disappeared. Instead, individual consumerism has replaced the collective worship tradition of the past. ppl today feel they have a choice as consumers of religion – spiritual shoppers. Religion is now individualised as we develop our own ‘do-it-yourself’ religions that give meaning to our lives +fits in with our interests +aspirations. As a result of this, religion no longer acts as the source of collective identity that it once did. However, she does admit that religion still has an influence on society’s values. E.g. the values of equality +human rights have their roots in religion. Such values can be a source of cultural identity +social solidarity, even for those who are not actively involved in religion. |
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