Secularisation

Secularisation

1. Defining secularisation

   • Woodhead and Heelas
     • Disapperance Thesis
       • Modernity is bringing about the death of religion
       • Decline in significance of religion for both society and individuals
     • Differentiation Thesis
       • Religion has become separated from wider social structure
       • No longer influences major social institutions e.g. family, education, legal and political systems
     • Evaluation
       • The distinction is important
       • Recognises that religion will not disappear but rather it will cease to be significant in the working of the social system
   • Hanson
     • Narrow Approach
       • Focuses on religion at the level of individual consciousness
     • Broad Approach
       • Asks whether religion has lost significance on the level of the social system
     • Evaluation
       • The distinction is important
       • Recognises that religion will not disappear but rather it will cease to be significant in the working of the social system
   • Secularisation and the West
     • Focus on the West
     • Does not see it as a global process
     • Bruce limits secularisation thesis to Europe, North America and Australasia

2. Evidence of Secularisation

   • The power and influence of the church
     • The power of religious institutions in Western Europe has declined over the past 1000 years
     • Church buildings in ruins or secular uses
   • Religious beliefs
     • People's attitudes and thinking is no longer based on religious beliefs
     • Narrower definition of belief so secularisation has risen
   • Religious practises
     • Religious practises have declined
     • Church membership, attendance, marriage, funerals, christenings, Sunday school, and Bible reading are down
   • Privatised religion
     • Decline in collective religious practises
     • Luckmann - once religion becomes private, the individual can 'pick and choose' as they please
     • Religion is become a 'private affair'
     • Davie - separation of 'belief and belonging', religious belief is less likely to be expressed in an institutional setting
     • If privatisation of religion is widespread, secularisation is not occurring in Hanson's narrow approach but rather in the broad approach
   • Beyond church and denomination
     • Barker - NRMs only affect lives of followers and make little difference to wider society
     • Bruce - NAMs have minimal effect on soceity
     • Rise of NAMs and NRMs are insignificant
   • Evaluation
     • Problems of validity when measuring membership
     • Davie distinguishes between belief and belonging - if belonging is low, it doesn't mean that secularisation is happening
     • Both belief and belonging is high in the USA
     • Ignore NRMs but it is beyond major religious institutions
     • Going to church is not a valid indicator of religiosity because it has different meanings at different times
     • Assume that there was a 'golden age' of religion but peasant religious practices are under-represented and the extent of hostility towards religion from peasants is underestimated

3. Theoretical Perspectives

   • Marx
     • Death of religion is inevitable
     • Social classes and oppression would generate religion
     • In communist society these would disappear and so would religion
     • Religion is a reflection of class society
     • Capitalism contains the seeds of secularisation
   • Weber
     • Rationalisation is a key process in modern society
     • Reason steadily replaces faith
     • Capitalism was one of the main factors in the development of rational capitalism
     • Spirit of capitalism had its origins in Calvinism
   • Berger
     • One of the main factors leading to secularisation is the rationality of Protestantism
     • Increase in spiritual marketplace because of media, geographical mobility and globalisation
     • People are more exposed to different religions so do not accept one truth. This weakens the authority of religion.
     • Protestantism has cut out the enchantment and sacramental ritual elements of Catholicism
   • Wilson
     • Religion is declining in social significance
     • Social differentiation - religion ceases to be significant in the working of the social system
     • Rational thinking and science - science and the scientific method displace religious explanations
     • Decline of community - communal values were expressed and reinforced in religious rituals but industrialisation has broken up close-knit communities
   • Durkheim
     • Saw rapid social changes brought about my industrialisation as a threat to religion
     • Close-knit community with shared norms and values were lifeblood of religion but changes resulted in a loss of both
     • Decline of religion is a reversible trend
     • Religion will not die, it will change form e.g. Bellah - civil religion