the "secularization thesis/paradigm"
What is the "secularization thesis/paradigm"? Can it account for the significance of religion in the US? PART 2: Urban Industry Education Rights of Individual Capitalists
A process of modernization exists based on the following factors: Urbanization - people moved to cities to find work - the industrial revolution - factories required that you leave town and go to the city - there were no child labor laws and no labor laws generally - men and children were worked to death - men who left their towns to work in the cities found other women, so we have the breakdown of the family - this squelched Sunday church attendance because workers were worked relentlessly Industrialization - whatever can be monetized, and a process can be whipped up for it, such as violins. If a craftsman wanted to make good violins at a fair price, he would go to Switzerland and observe a master making it. Everything could now be industrialized. Education - the Reformation brought about universal compulsory education. Women became literate. People were becoming individuals. Education played a huge part in democratizing everyone, because if you could read you could change your status in society. Rights - the idea that you have rights that transcend the freedoms the pope or the emperors give you. Rationalization - individualism - it's not that we do things because that's how it's been handed down to me from my father, but that each individual will decide who he/she will be. Capitalism - played a role in the broader modernization of all the above - liberalism both economically and politically - if they are baptized, they can vote and be church members (the halfway covenant) - the idea of a holy commonwealth was becoming impractical - within a decade, China went through the process of modernization that took American 100 years to undergo - liberalism just means freedom - modernization is a process by which it allows certain freedoms to blossom - wherever modernization goes, secularization follows
What is the "secularization thesis/paradigm"? Can it account for the significance of religion in the US? PART 3:
Thomas Luckman - suggested that religion doesn't disappear in secularization, but transforms into private forms of self-expression. It's a private system of meanings. This leads to the idea that beliefs are true for me, but not for everyone. Steve Bruce says there are crass versions of the secularization thesis, such as Marxism, etc. We've all grown-up and become less religious. He defines it this way: A decay of religious institutions. Shifting from who is God to how can I have my best life now. Technical takes precedence over doctrine. The state takes over the properties and roles of religious institutions. The replacement of a specifically religious consciousness with an empirical, rational orientation. Our default setting is to treat each problem as a technical problem that can be solved. The shift from a variety of religious activities to secular ones. In other words, church is less relevant in daily life. The decline in time, energy and resources devoted to spiritual concerns. He says we can measure all of those. Religion in Europe - in public they were Christians, but in private they thought it was hooey. Church decline in Britain began in 1841 when 40% were worshiping, whereas today only 9% worship. Ireland in the 1980s 80% worshiped, by the 2000s 40%. France 23% to 5%, the Netherlands 41% to 14%, etc. This is the trajectory that we're following in the US. Modernization is the driver of this.
What is the "secularization thesis/paradigm"? Can it account for the significance of religion in the US? PART 1 (three segments): Exchange of Powers
a) Secularization refers to a process of exchanging ecclesiastical power for secular power. In one sense, secularization was intended by the Reformation, such as the separation of church and state. The emphasis on personal responsibility regarding personal salvation helped create individualism. The emphasis for education had consequences that the Reformers did not intend. The Reformation didn't help secularize the state, but helped sacralize the state. b) Then there is secularization in another sense - people becoming less religious than their parents were. Peter Berger (sociologist, Boston University) - 1980 - called this idea into question that your children will be less religious than you because of secularization. He said the world is not becoming more secular but more fundamentally religious. Now, very few people hold to that view about the children of religious people. c) Neo-secularization thesis - dropout rates are not a good barometer of secularization, because churches can become secularized within.
