Assess the view that religion is not in decline but simply changing as a result of changes in wider society (33 marks)
Wilson defines secularisation as when “religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance”. Secularisation theorists argue that religion is in decline. However, others have argued that religion is not in decline, but it is in fact changing. They believe it is changing in accordance to the changes within society such as greater individualism, consumerism, or a shift towards postmodern societies.
Grace Davie argues that religion isn’t declining but is taking a much more privatised form. She argues that we now have believing without belonging, where people hold religious beliefs but don’t necessarily go to church because they don’t feel they have to go to church. Therefore, the decline in traditional religion is matched by the growth of a new form of religion. Davie notes a trend towards vicarious religion, which is where a small number of professional clergy practice religion on behalf of a much larger group of people, who experience it at second hand. This pattern is typical in Britain where church attendance is low, but people still use the church for rites of passage (e.g. baptisms, weddings and funerals). She compares vicarious religion to the tip of an iceberg and sees it as evidence for believing without belonging. For example, people may not be able to attend church due to work commitments, they have children to look after or maybe they find it more comfortable to worship at home. According to Davie, the secularisation theory assumes that modernisation affects every society in the same way, causing decline in religion and replacement by science. She argues against this and says that there are multiple modernities: e.g. Britain and America are both modern societies, but have different patterns of religion in terms of church