Secularization
Bruce
Fundamentalism is caused by secularization.
Lyon
Religion is becoming consumerist in order to compete against other activities and belief systems in the spiritual marketplace (Disneyfication)
Norris and Inglehart
Secularization varies around the world depending to the level of risk eg. less economically stable the more religious a country will be
Glendinning and Bruce
1 in 50 people in Kendal did New age religion
Wilson
'secularization is the process in which religious institutions, practices and beliefs lose their social significance'
Wilson
Church marriages in decline by 33% and the increase in children born outside marriage shows how religion has little influence on societies moral and value systems
6.3%
Decline in church attendance from 40% in 1851 to --- in 2005
Lyotard
Decline in the influence of metanarratives as people can now choose what to believe rather than be told what to believe
Weber
Disenchanting the world through rational choice and logic (capitalism) leaves little room for superstition
Wilson
Disengagement from other areas of society as religion now has a symbolic marginal status eg. politics
Parsons
Disengagement is good as it allows the church to focus solely on moral issues
Roof and McKinney
Growth of conservative Protestantism is USA at the expense of more mainstream dominations
Almond et al.
Growth of fundamentalism proves that there is still an interest in traditional religion
Roof and McKinney
Ignored growth of Pentecostalism which is evidence against secularization in recent times which still keeps a hardline view and believes in the literal truth of the Bible
41%
In 2003 survey result found that what percentage have no religion?
Bruce
Media saturation and changes in values within religion is a sign of weakness (becoming less hardline in order to be popular)
Bruce
Questions the significance of the new Christian right and Pentecostalism growth as only slows secularization down
Weber
Rationalism and science has stopped religions influence as people turn to science for answers instead BUT science can be seen as a religion
Lyon
Re-enchantment has begun to occur due to the increase in rationalism
Heelas
Re-sacrilisation process is occurring as we shift from trad. to individualistic religions
Grace Davie
Religion becoming a privatized matter - 'Believing without belonging'
Comte
Religion would decline as a result of the increasing importance of positivist science. Functionalist.
Hervieu-Leger
Religious decline is due to social amnesia as young don't inherit fixed religious ideas like before
Vasque
Secularization arguments only use quantitative data so the argument lacks verstehen and is over generalizing
Voas and Crockett
Statistic from Social trends show a decline in both attendance and believing
Interpretivists
Statistics of decline are unreliable due to the increase of private worship
Bruce
Technology has helped replace religious explanations for the unknown BUT religion is still strong in areas such as death and illness where technology can't provide all the answers
Parsons
The church has lost many of its functions in a process called structural differentiation, But in the USA the church remained important because christian values had been generalized and absorbed into the culture and underpins the american way of life.
Glock and Stark
Too simplistic to either support or criticise securlarisation but the concept has to be broken down and related to specific places before it is possible to reach any form of conclusion.
Bruce
Two trends that go against secularization- 1- cultural defense eg Iranian revolution in 1979, 2- cultural transition eg. migrants into the uk clinging to their religion as a form of identity and a way to remain close to home BUT this only form as a group identity rather than performing any religious function
390,000
Validity of the 2001 census might be questioned because over __________ said they were jedis or jedi knights.
