worldwide.

We can detect secularization in survey data that track religious attitudes and
practices over time and also in the growing percentage of people who indicate in
succeeding censuses that they have no religious affiliation. We also know that various
secular institutions are taking over some of the functions formerly performed by religion,
thus robbing it of its once pervasive authority over all aspects of life. It is an exaggeration to
claim, as Max Weber did, that the whole world is gradually becoming “disenchanted.”
However, much of it certainly is.

At the same time, we know that even as secularization grips many people, many others
have been caught up in a religious revival of vast proportions. Religious belief and practice
are intensifying for these people, partly because religion serves as a useful vehicle for
political expression. The fact that this revival was unexpected just a few decades ago should
warn people not to be overly bold in their forecasts. However, it seems to me and to others
(Bibby, 2017) that the two contradictory social processes of secularization and revival are
likely to persist for some time, resulting in a world that is more religiously polarized.

In Review
Learning Objectives
LO1 Explain how, under some circumstances, religion creates
social cohesion and how, under other circumstances,
religion reinforces social inequality and promotes social conflict,
both non-violent and violent

Theories at a Glance Religion

Theory Main Question Application

Functionalism How do social structures Durkheim said that when people live together, they
and the values underlying come to share common sentiments and values. These
them contribute to social common sentiments and values form a collective
stability? conscience that is larger than any individual. On
occasion, we experience the collective conscience
directly. This causes us to distinguish the secular
everyday world of the profane from the religious,
transcendent world of the sacred.

We designate certain objects as symbolizing the sacred.

Durkheim called these objects totems. We invent set
practices to connect us with the sacred. Durkheim
referred to these practices as rituals. The function of
rituals and of religion as a whole is to reinforce social
solidarity, said Durkheim. Religion heightens our
experience of group belonging, increases our respect for
the group’s institutions, and strengthens our belief in the
validity of the group’s culture.
Conflict How does the structure of
theory inequality between
privileged groups seeking to
maintain their advantages
and subordinate groups
seeking to increase theirs
lead to conflict and often to
social change?
Symbolic How do people
interactionism communicate to make their
social settings meaningful,
thus helping to create their
social circumstances?
After becoming routinized, religions typically support
class inequality. They often emphasize charity, too—but
not so much charity as to change the basic structure of
inequality in society. For example, in medieval and early
modern Europe, Christianity, while collecting alms for
the poor, promoted the view that the Almighty ordains
class inequality, promising rewards to the lowly in the
afterlife (“The meek shall inherit the earth”). However,
religiously inspired protest against inequality often erupts
from below, as the twentieth-century Social Gospel
movement in Canada and the civil rights movement in
the United States illustrate.
Religiously inspired conflict is by no means always
progressive and non-violent; no religion is innocent of
slaughter. Nor are the major world religions, and
especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, innocent of
violence against Nature. Proponents of these religions
view God as having granted humans the right to
dominate Nature; and in the process of exercising what
they regard as their God-given right, humans have
driven many species to extinction and caused great
environmental damage. By imbuing all living and
inanimate things with a soul, animistic Indigenous
religions prescribe a more harmonious relationship
between humans and Nature, which is especially
instructive in an era of environmental dangers caused by
humans.
Weber wrote that if history is like a train, pushed along
its tracks by economic and political interests, then
religious ideas are like railroad switches, determining
exactly which tracks the train will follow. His most
famous illustration of his thesis is his The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Like Marx, Weber recognized the fundamental
importance of the economic factor in explaining the rise
of capitalism. But Weber also sought to establish the
one-sidedness of any exclusively economic
interpretation. He did so by offering what we would today
call a symbolic interactionist interpretation. For
specifically religious reasons, wrote Weber, followers of
the Protestant theologian John Calvin stressed the need
to engage in intense worldly activity and to display
industry, punctuality, and frugality in their everyday life.
In the view of such men as John Wesley and Benjamin
Franklin, people could reduce their religious doubts and
ensure a state of grace by working diligently and living
simply.
Many Protestants took up this idea. Weber called it the
Protestant ethic. According to Weber, the Protestant
ethic had wholly unexpected economic consequences.
Where it took root, and where economic conditions were
favourable, early capitalist enterprise grew most
robustly. Weber’s focus on the worldly significance of the
meanings people attach to religious ideas makes him a
forerunner of the symbolic interactionist tradition.
 Feminism How do social conventions The major world religions have traditionally placed
maintain male dominance women in a subordinate position. Catholic priests,
and female subordination, Muslim mullahs, and Jewish orthodox rabbis must be
and how do these men. Women have been allowed to serve as Protestant
conventions get ministers only since the mid-nineteenth century and as
overturned? rabbis in the more liberal branches of Judaism since the
1970s. Many scriptures that emphasize the
subordination of women continue to inform practice to a
greater or lesser degree.

Religious feminists have challenged such ideas. For

example, Muslim feminists have established that what
many religious clerics present as divine Islamic law
regarding women is actually based on interpretations
that were authored by men over the centuries. They also
contend that Islamic legal principles such as that of the
“public interest” contradict and override principles that
deny women equality with men.

LO2 Describe the social forces causing secularization

According to the secularization thesis, religious institutions, actions, and consciousness

are unlikely to disappear, but they are certainly on the decline worldwide. That is because
science and rational thinking in general fail to find any evidence for many religious beliefs
(such as belief in the afterlife) and instead provide evidence-based alternative explanations
(when our bodily functions cease, we are gone forever). Evidence supporting the
secularization thesis includes census data on the percentage of Canadians claiming they
have no religion (which climbed from about 0.5 percent in 1961 to nearly 24 percent in
2011) and survey data on the percentage of Canadians who attend religious services
weekly (which fell from about 65 percent in 1945 to 16 percent in 2015).

LO3 Analyze the social forces encouraging religious revivals

Despite the consensus about secularization that was evident in the 1980s, many
sociologists modified their judgments in the 1990s. One reason for the change was that
accumulated survey evidence showed that religion was not in an advanced state of decay in
many places. In addition, an intensification of religious belief and practice took place
among some people in recent decades. For example, since the 1960s, fundamentalist
religious organizations have increased their membership in Canada and the United States,
and religious movements gained strength in much of Asia and Africa. These developments
prompted some sociologists to propose the revised secularization thesis, which
acknowledges that religion has become increasingly influential in the lives of some
individuals and groups in recent decades but also insists that the scope of religious
authority has continued to decline in most people’s lives. That is, for most people, religion
has less and less to say about education, family issues, politics, and economic affairs, even
though it may continue to be an important source of spiritual belief and practice for some
people.

The introduction of a market model of religion was another important development in the
field. According to the market model, religious organizations are suppliers of services such
as counselling, pastoral care, youth activities, men’s and women’s groups, performance
groups, lectures, and discussions. These services are demanded by people who desire
religious activities. Religious denominations are similar to product brands offering
different “flavours” of religious experience. Some countries, such as the United States,
permit vigorous competition among religions to satisfy the demands of the market for
religious services. The market model predicts that in such countries, religiosity as
measured by, say, frequency of attendance at religious services, will be relatively high.
(Religiosity is the degree to which religion is important to people.) On the other hand,
other countries allow less religious freedom. Some countries, like Saudi Arabia, even
impose a national religion on its citizens. The market model predicts that religiosity will
tend to be low in countries with restricted religious freedom because a single religion
cannot adequately satisfy the religious needs of a diverse population. Evidence supporting
the market model is mixed.

LO4 Outline change in the distribution of religious membership

in canada

Canada’s immigration patterns have resulted in gains for some religious groups and
declines in others over time. The number of Muslims more than doubled between 1991 and
2011, reaching an estimated 1.4 million or 3.2 percent of the population. More than two-
thirds of Canada’s population is Christian, but the proportion of Catholics declined from
about 50 percent to 40 percent between 1871 and 2011, while the proportion of
Protestants fell from around 45 percent to 27 percent over that 140-year period. The
decline in the proportion of Christians is partly due to the growing number of Canadians
specifying “no religion” since the 1961 census and partly due to the fact that about one-
third of recent immigrants are not Christian. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jews each
represent about 1 percent of the population.

LO5 List the main sociological factors associated with religious

involvement

Religiosity is highest near the beginning and near the end of the life cycle; in Atlantic
Canada, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; among people who had a religious upbringing;
among those with fewer years of secular education; and among people who live in
countries with a high level of inequality. These patterns suggest that religiosity depends
partly on obligation, opportunity, need, and learning. The people who are most religiously
active are those who are compelled to be active; those who were taught to be religious as
children; those who have relatively little exposure to secular education; those who have the
most time to participate in religious activities; and those who need organized religion the
most.

Multiple-Choice Questions
Questions marked with an asterisk are higher-order questions on the Bloom taxonomy.
Answers to these questions are available in the appendix on page CR-51.

1. One sociological theory contends that religious institutions, actions, and

consciousness are on the decline worldwide because science and rational thinking in
general fail to find any evidence for many religious beliefs and instead provide
evidence-based alternative explanations. Which theory makes this argument?

the market model

the secularization thesis

the revised secularization thesis

the Protestant ethic thesis

2. Which of the following has/have been proposed as an alternative/alternatives to the

secularization thesis?

the market model

the functional theory

the revised secularization thesis

(a) and (c) only

3. Which of the following arguments most accurately summarizes what the text says
about the relationship between extremist Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism?

Colonialism, military occupation, and high inequality in the distribution of

resources are associated with extremist Islamic fundamentalism, which is in turn
associated with a relatively high level of terrorism.

Extremist Islamic fundamentalism is associated with a relatively high level of

terrorism.
 Extremist Islamic fundamentalism is NOT associated with a relatively high level of
terrorism.

The text says nothing about the relationship between extremist Islamic
fundamentalism and terrorism.

*4. A sociologist conducts research showing that (a) in countries where the Catholic
Church is active, the average Catholic’s level of religious commitment is stronger
where competition between the Catholic Church and other religious is stronger; and
(b) in all countries where relevant data are available, attendance at religious services
tends to be low where religious freedom is high. What is the most appropriate
conclusion to draw from these findings?

The findings support the market model.

The findings refute the market model.

The findings are not relevant to the market model.

The findings in support of the market model are mixed.

5. Which of the following factors is NOT associated with a high level of religious
involvement?

being in the middle of the life cycle

living in a country with a low level of inequality

being a Catholic

(A) AND (B) ONLY