secularism - lecture notes

Question 1

secularisation thesis

Answer 1

Secularisation Thesis - Through progression into modernisation and the growth of rational thought religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance

• Sociology of religion = popular in second half of 20th century
• Rooted in analysis of Weber, Durkheim and Marx
• It is a thesis, and it is surrounded by a lot of theory that needs a bit of unpacking

Question 2

value

Answer 2

• Value and making meaning traverse many locations, events and organisations that may be thought of a religious, secular or spiritual (whatever these words really mean)
  o what this means is that we need to consider a wide range of pursuits studied empirically to seek to encompass what it means to be valuable
• For people in the contemporary age, the experience of things that are valued is coupled with things that are considered secular, religious and/or spiritual

Question 3

secularisation as a narrative

Answer 3

• In the end ‘secularisation’ is a narrative (a constructed story of big moves in society) that assumes the decline of religions and their authority, and that their withdrawal into the private sphere is inevitable
• It is important to understand that thought of in this way it is a narrative, built on assumptions, with little empirical evidence to support it
  o This is not to say that secularisation means nothing, but at students of religion we have to think about definitions and ideas more carefully

Question 4

secularism and contrast

Answer 4

• Secularism then must be defined in contrast
  o An independent phenomenon
  o Emerging alongside
  o Does not exclude the appreciation of ‘sacred’ things

Question 5

binary

Answer 5

• We cannot necessarily put religion and the secular as a binary
• We must break down automatic connection between spirituality and religion
  o So it becomes possible to be ‘spiritual and not religious’ (a common perspective in the West)
• The social scientific link between ‘spirits’ and a ‘spiritual’ or ‘enchanted’ world separate from the secular or unspiritual space breaks down
• Seeking truth ‘behind’ religion beyond a simple secular idea may be an activity of humanism, atheism, or secularism

Question 6

charles Taylor

Answer 6

• Charles Taylor (A Secular Age)
  o ‘spiritual’ – suggests something having value
  o Religion in modern secular life is a choice (among many choices) which may be chosen
  o ‘religion’ was something assumed authoritative practiced without much reflection
  o Asserts that it is not longer possible to practice religion in the traditional sense – ‘spiritual’ is then a preferred term for the choice to follow a religion