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Postmodern religion

• Lyon: traditional religion is giving way to a variety of new religious forms -> shift from modern to postmodern society

Globalisation, the media and religion

• Media saturates us in postmodern society -> religious ideas have become ‘disembedded’ -> lift them out of physical churches -> electronic church and televangelism -> blurring boundaries of social life

• Religion has become de-institutionalised -> religious ideas become cultural resources individuals can adapt for their own purpose

Online religion and religion online

• Religion online: top-down communication -> religious organisation uses the internet to address members and potential converts -> no feedback or dialogue between the parties -> has hierarchy

• Online religion: ‘cyber religion’ -> may not exist outside of the internet -> no hierarchy -> member to member communication -> sense of community for shared spiritual interest and mutual support

Religious consumerism

• Postmodern society = consumerism -> Hervieu-Leger -> pick and mix elements of different faiths -> suit our tastes, identity, fashionable

• Lyon = religion is in the sphere of consumption e.g. may use more than one church -> leads to the loss of meta-narratives

Self-religions and the New Age

• New Age spirituality rejects obligation and obedience to external authority -> emphasis on personal development and ‘inner self’ -> pick and mix ideas = self-religion/self-spirituality

Re-enchantment of the world

• Re-enchantment = growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality -> growth in validity of non-traditional religions in the West

Sample questions

Outline and explain two reasons why figures on attendance at mainstream churches may overstate the degree of secularisation in Britain today. (10 marks)

Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, evaluate the impact of postmodernity on religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. (20 marks)

New forms of religion

• Some sociologists reject the secularisation thesis -> new forms of religion are emerging -> results of choice and consumerisation and individualism

From obligation to consumption

• Davie: people no longer feel obliged to go to church -> people go to church if they want to or benefit from it e.g. Baptisms see decline in babies and increase in adults choosing to

Believing without belonging

• Davie claims religion is becoming privatised not declining -> people are reluctant to join organisations but still hold religious beliefs

Vicarious religion: the Spiritual Health Service

• Vicarious religion = religion practiced by the minority e.g. clergy on behalf of the majority -> religion has become second hard

• Churches act as a spiritual health service like NHS -> there for people to use when they need it e.g. Baptism, wedding, funeral, public mourning

• Vicarious religion = tip of the iceberg -> believing without belonging

• Secularisation theory assumes modernisation affects all societies in the same way -> Davie argues there are ‘multiply modernities’ -> religion affected them in different ways e.g. UK and USA

Neither believing nor belonging

• Voas and Crockett disagree with Davie -> church attendance and believing are both declining together

• Bruce claims if people are not willing to invest time in church their belief is declining

• Census suggests 72% identify as Christian -> Day criticises this as her interviews showed few Christians mentioned God or Christianity -> this was used to describe their ethnic group as ‘white British’

Spiritual shopping

• Hervieu-Leger -> personal choice and decline in obligation -> society has developed cultural amnesia -> a collective loss memory

• Religion used to be taught by family and Parish -> few parents do this now -> let their children decide what they believe

• Additionally the trend towards more social equality undermines the value of religion -> religion has declined not disappeared -> trend towards individual consumerism rather than collective tradition

• People have become spiritual shoppers -> they feel they have a choice in religion -> they create ‘do it yourself’ religions -> fits with their own life and aspirations

• Religion is a spiritual journey -> we chose which elements to explore and which groups to join -> two new religious types are emerging:

• Pilgrims: follow an individual path of self-discovery – New Age Spirituality -> emphasis on personal development

• Converts: join religious groups that offer strong sense of belonging -> often shared ethnic background -> recreate a sense of community lost by decline in tradition

• Religion no longer acts as a source of collective identity -> doesn’t influence values -> links to late modernity

Topic 4: Religion, renewal and choice

• It is human nature to seek rewards and avoid costs -> different options available

Compensators

• Stark and Bainbridge: religion is attractive as it provides compensators -> real rewards are scared and unobtainable -> religion offers superficial ones e.g. life after death vs immortality

• The cycle of renewal: some religions declines, others grow and attract new members e.g. church declines, sects and cults grown

• Religious competition: Competition in religion leads to improvements in the quality of religious goods -> churches make their product more attractive

America VS Europe

• Demand for religion increases when there are different sorts to choose from -> where there is a religious monopoly religion declines

• Stark and Bainbridge -> religion survives in the USA because there has never been a religious monopoly -> constitution guarantees freedom of religion and separation from church -> healthy growth of religious market

• European countries have been dominated by religious monopoly of the official state church -> comp held back

• Supply and demand -> main factor influencing religious participation is the supply of religious groups not the demand

Supply-led religion

• Hadden and Shupe -> growth in televangelism shows religion is supply led -> commercial broadcasting opened up competition and evangelical churches thrived

• Lifting restrictions on Asians in America = increases Hara Krishna -> became popular

• Growth in evangelical megachurches -> large congregations with lavish resources

• In Japan post WW2religion was deregulated = new religions

A spiritual revolution?

• Spiritual revolution = holistic spirituality and New Age overtaking traditional religion -> growth in spiritual market e.g. self-help books, courses and therapies

• Heelas and Woodhead: distinguish between the congregational domain = traditional Christianity and Holistic Melieu = spirituality and New Age

• There are more people in the congregational domain but the holistic melieu is growing because:

• Subjective turn in culture -> shift away from obeying and duty

• Traditional religion is too dogmatic -> Evangelical are more successful as they require duty and obedience but also spiritual and personal duty e.g. ‘born again’

The weakness of the New Age

• Bruce challenged the claim that religion is change not declining:

• They are not big enough to plug the gaps left by traditional religions

• Socialisation of the next generation is not strong enough -> many women in the holistic melieu remain childless

• Weak commitment -> people only dabble in meditation, horoscopes, astrology and alternative medicine -> they are not important parts of lives

• Structural weakness: individualistic nature -> lacks external power -> cannot achieve consensus -> cannot evangelise

Religious market theory

• Stark and Bainbridge: criticise secularisation theory as being Eurocentric -> only focuses on decline in Europe -> ignores continuing vitality in America and elsewhere

• It also has a distorted view of the past and future -> was no ‘golden age’ of religion nor a future end point

• People are naturally religious and it meets humans needs

Criticisms:

• Bruce rejects that religious diversity increases religious participation

• Stark and Bainbridge misrepresent secularisation theory

• Beckford = unsociological -> claims people are naturally religious

An alternative view: secularisation and security

• Norris and Inglehart reject religious market theory -> only applies to America -> fails to explain variations in religiosity in different societies

Existential security theory

• Norris and Inglehart = the reason for different levels in religiosity between societies is not different degrees of religious choice but different degrees of existential security

• Existential security = the feeling that survival is secure enough that it can be taking for granted

• Religion meets needs for security -> in societies that are secure there is less demand

• Poor societies: higher demand in poor societies or for poor people in rich societies

• Rich societies: when people have a high standard of living there is less risk = lower religion

• Rich, secular, secure societies have lower population growth -> poor, insecure religious countries have higher population growth = rich countries more secular and the rest of the world becoming more religious

• Western Europe is secular -> it is well developed and have welfare states

• America is religious -> it is one of the most unequal rich societies with inadequate welfare systems

Evaluation

• Vasquez: the only use quantitative data

• See religion as a negative response - ignore positives

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