Secularisation: the process where religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social
significance.
Beliefs: the influence religion has on people's beliefs and values.
Practicises: levels of church membership and church attendance, religious activity.
Institutions: the extent to which churches and other religious institutions have maintained
their influence and wealth in society.
Ways to measure the decline in religious belief:
-Church attendance
-Church membership statistics
-Church participation in religious ceremonies (marriages)
Statistics that support the idea of secularisation:
-fewer people attending church, 6% today
-sunday school attendance has declined
-increase in average age of churchgoers (mostly elderly)
-fewer baptism and church weddings
-greater religious diversity
Problems with the statistical evidence:
-when asked to complete surveys, people exaggerate church attendance because of social
desirability
-some sociologists argue people may be religious but do not attend church, religion has
become increasingly privatised.
Evidence for secularisation:
-decline in church membership and participation
-less religious ceremonies (marriages, funerals, christenings)
-people look for rational, scientific explanations for phenomena rather than religious
-weber- we have become ‘disenchanted’
-the status of the clergy has declined
-church buildings are having to close
-disengagement, the power and influence of the church on wider society is lessening
-cultural amnesia-
-societalisation- Bruce
-postmodernists- collapse of the metanarratives, all knowledge is relative, there is no one
absolute truth, people question religion
Evidence against secularisation:
-People are still ‘believing but not belonging’, religion is becoming more privatised and
people have high levels of religiosity
-there has been a growth of the Holistic milieu (Heelas and woodhead) and NAMs due to a
‘subjective turn’
-religion is changing its form, people ‘pick and mix’ elements of different religions to create
‘hybrid religions’
significance.
Beliefs: the influence religion has on people's beliefs and values.
Practicises: levels of church membership and church attendance, religious activity.
Institutions: the extent to which churches and other religious institutions have maintained
their influence and wealth in society.
Ways to measure the decline in religious belief:
-Church attendance
-Church membership statistics
-Church participation in religious ceremonies (marriages)
Statistics that support the idea of secularisation:
-fewer people attending church, 6% today
-sunday school attendance has declined
-increase in average age of churchgoers (mostly elderly)
-fewer baptism and church weddings
-greater religious diversity
Problems with the statistical evidence:
-when asked to complete surveys, people exaggerate church attendance because of social
desirability
-some sociologists argue people may be religious but do not attend church, religion has
become increasingly privatised.
Evidence for secularisation:
-decline in church membership and participation
-less religious ceremonies (marriages, funerals, christenings)
-people look for rational, scientific explanations for phenomena rather than religious
-weber- we have become ‘disenchanted’
-the status of the clergy has declined
-church buildings are having to close
-disengagement, the power and influence of the church on wider society is lessening
-cultural amnesia-
-societalisation- Bruce
-postmodernists- collapse of the metanarratives, all knowledge is relative, there is no one
absolute truth, people question religion
Evidence against secularisation:
-People are still ‘believing but not belonging’, religion is becoming more privatised and
people have high levels of religiosity
-there has been a growth of the Holistic milieu (Heelas and woodhead) and NAMs due to a
‘subjective turn’
-religion is changing its form, people ‘pick and mix’ elements of different religions to create
‘hybrid religions’
