THE DIMINISHED IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETY: SECULARIZATION

Sociology of religion emerged at the same time as the industrialization of the Western world. During this period, the societies changed dramatically. Part of this change was that the traditional religions of Western Europe lost ground. That made the early sociologists of religion think that religion would disappear completely with time. Since sociologists of religion primarily studied the Western world, particularly Europe and Christianity, this religion became the reference point for the new concept called secularization. The early  sociologists of religion believed that religion would lose gradually but steadily in importance due to for example the following developments:  separation of church and state; separation of religious instruction and school education, and the fact that belonging to a religion or not would become a matter of individual choice.  
But what does it actually mean when it is said that there is 'less' religion today? Yes, we can see that e.g. the care for the weakest members of society is (no longer) the responsibility of the church but of the state. This, quite rightly, means that the church has less influence and is less visible. However, it does not mean that for instance the Church of Denmark is about to be closed down or that the individual Dane has stopped being religious.
When sociologists of religion today refer to secularization, they emphasize the importance of separating the different levels and study religion in time and space.  According to Karel Dobbelaere (b. 1933), religion is no longer shared by the entire community. The Danish Parliament for example  is common to all Danes, and therefore it can take care of the weakest members of society. Christianity, however, is no longer common to all Danes, and therefore the Danish Church can no longer carry out common tasks like welfare, education and politics. The Church of Denmark can only be responsible for tasks concerning its own members. When the Minister of Church Affairs reacted so strongly against the minister in the local Copenhagen church, it was because he tried to make the church take responsibility for the common task, the politics regarding refugees..
People do not stop being religious, just because religion is no longer a common affair. However, when religion is no longer something shared by the community, it makes more sense for people to be religious alone or with family or friends, sharing the same religion. In other words, religion becomes private. You are religious when you are alone, with family or (religious) friends, but when at work or participating in politics, then you do not show your religion. Subsequently, family events related to religion, such as weddings and baptism, are still maintained, while a regular Sunday worship becomes unimportant, because it is an expression of a common religion, which no longer exists.
Dobbelaere thinks, as indicated, that secularization should be measured at different levels: At the national level, at the institutional level, and at the individual level. At the national level, secularization is about the degree of religious influence or not on, say, law or education. At the institutional level it is about how much the religious institutions adapt to secular requirements, for instance in discussions about women's rights or ministers' right to divorce. And at the individual level, it is about whether religious values, ideas, rituals and experiences are more or less important to the individuals. Dobbelaere’s point is that secularization can come in a number of various forms or degrees. A society can be secularized, while the citizens are still religious.
In societies with privatized religion and people being religious at home, it is, of course, a problem for institutions such as a national church. It becomes difficult to get its religious message across. To attract people, the church must now compete with TV stations, football clubs, political parties, and more. One way of doing this is by adapting and offering services at other times than Sunday mornings: night church, or church services designed for busy families, such as 'pasta' services. Another method is to use the media to convey the message.

RELIGION IN POST-MODERN SOCIETY: INDIVIDUALIZED RELIGION

Secularization changed religion from being a communal matter to being an individual and private affair. However, although traditional religions no longer have the same power as before, people continue to be religious. The difference is that now they make their own decisions about what to believe. According to Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925), post- modern man is forced to continuously choose his values, including religion. No one can tell him or her if s/he makes the right choices. Therefore, s/he is always looking for something better. The result might be a personal religion consisting of fragments from all the religions of the world, a kind of do-it-yourself religion: a belief in both Jesus (a Christian touch) and in reincarnation (a Hindu and Buddhist inspiration) while still maintaining a membership in the national, traditional church.Another characteristic of post-modern religion is that it is centered on the very same individual him- or herself rather than on the divine being. Paul Heelas (1946-) thinks that religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism, all God-centered, are about to be replaced with so-called spirituality, focused on the divine within the individual human being. Paul Heelas does not think that this kind of religion should be seen as fragmented. Rather, it is a totally comprehensive and stable form of religion, but it is chosen and put together by individuals because it fits with the way they see the world : An individual-focused religion in an individual-focused world. The main religious experience are not communal rituals as in traditional religions, but religious practices designed for the individual, such as meditation and yoga.
A common feature of postmodern religion, however, is that the main issue will be experience, i.e. focus will be to experience and 'feel' religion “on one’s own body”, at the same time as the previous more permanent religious authorities fade away or lose influence.

All secularization theory, however, has been criticized for focusing too much on Christianity and too much on Western (and western European) society. If we look at religion globally (and also at religion in e.g. the USA), we get a different picture. Jose Casanova (1951-) emphasizes that if we consider most of the world, religion is still a matter of the community, it is both public and visible. Casanova also notes that religious movements are increasingly active in public debates and in politics around the world - including Western societies. This is partly due to globalization. The worldviews and the development that has led to secularization in the West are challenged and affected by other parts of the world today. This applies to international politics, where secular human rights are challenged by worldviews based on religion as the top authority. And it holds for some societies where increasing migration means that new population groups bring other ideas of the role of religion in society and in the private sphere.

Didactical comments

Tasks:
The purpose of the tasks is to give students knowledge of religion in modern and postmodern society, including secularization, and to become aware of the differences between different countries and cultures according to religion. The students work in groups with different countries (the countries are only examples) and present their work to the class.