Two paradigms I, Secularization Hypothesis II, Religious Market theory/rational-choice theory Reflections: III, a Chinese perspective IV, a Catholic view.

Two paradigms I, Secularization Hypothesis II, Religious Market theory/rational-choice theory Reflections: III, a Chinese perspective IV, a Catholic view on Secularization (would be not presented in this lecture )

Roberto Cipriani, Sociology of Religion: An Historical Introduction, tr. Laura Ferrarotti, 1997,2000

Harvey Cox, The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective1965Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy Elements of A Sociological Theory of Religion, 1969. The De-secularization of the World Resurgent Religion and World Politics. 1999 David Martin, A General Theory of Secularization, 1978a,Bryan Wilson, Contemporary Transformations of Religion, 1976 Religion in Sociological Pperspective,1982,Rodney Stark,William Sims BainbridgeThe Future of Religion,1985. Rodney Stark, Roger Finke, Acts of Faith Explaining the Human Side of Religion,2000Yang fenggang, The red, black and gray markets of religion in China, 2006. C. K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society, A study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors. 2006

This controversial concept coined to understand the interaction between religious change and socio-cultural changes in the process of modernization.

Sociologist assumed that Religion is critical part of human life, and religion would always be present as it performs necessary function. (eg.E. Durkheim) However, secularization hypothesis claims that religion as a primitive thinking will eventually be displaced: Religion is dying out, or has less influence to the public sphere.

It is a part of Modernization: the disenchantment of the world: Traced back to Protestant Reformation, developed out of French Enlightenment and positivist views of history, driven by bothsocial and intellectual forces.M. Weber, Talcott Parsons, Thomas LuckmanBryan Wilson, Harvey Cox, Peter Berger etc.

According to Webers disenchantment if the world, it is rationalization, whereby magic and spiritual mystery is driven from the world, nature is managed rather than enchanted, the spiritual loses social significance, the institutions and laws do not depend on religion for their legitimization. -----According to Larry Shinner 1966, 6 layers of secularization and Andrew Greeley1969 6 types of secularization-----According to peter Glasner1977, three forms of secularization Institutional, normative and cognitive secularization.

According to Harvey Cox,c1965. secular and secularization The secular saeculum, this age, aeon/This world, cosmos Secularizationthe process the society/ culture free from the religious control or isolated ontological worldview, it is autonomy of human consciousness. ----According to Jean Bauberot. 2003 4 stages of the process of the secularization. a, confiscation of the ecclesiastic property; b, the disenchantment caused by industrialization; c, decline of the religion. D, revision---desecularization

According to Byran Wilson(2001)Secularization is a global process affecting all religions.

As a part of Modernization*Modernization have different dimensionsIndustrialization, Differentiation /specialization/bureaucracy, Urbanization, Secularization *Secularization also has many manifestations Pluralisation/relativization, Rationalization, privatization

As an occurring Phenomena is an irreversible process In many European Countries, institutional participation and membership decline, and in US, the participation might increase, but the motivation might differ from the tradition, no more desiring from the salvation from the evil or hell, but for moral direction or social connection, or part of the local community social life.

Related to social problems: distrust, weakened social institutions, increasing rates of psychological problems, and a decreased sense of meaning and coherence. Lead to apathy, cynicism, consumerism, materialism. Lead to also atheism---denial of god or value of religion, secular humanism, scientific atheismEtc.

it is a rejection of the possibility of strong transcendence, a move to a purely immanent and human-center frame of reference that assumes life is about human flourishing and achieveing purely human goals. Goals beyond ordinary human flourishing or afterlife beliefs are seen as irrational, unscientific, enthusiastic, or fanatical. it removes the sense that the world is enchanted and affected by spiritual and moral forces or agencies.it sees the universe as at best impersonal, and at worst cold or threatening, rather than created by God with positive divine purpose in mind. Time is seen as infinite, homogeneous and empty as apposed to moving toward a particular conclusion. it rejects the idea that we are persons embedded in a social and natural world that has divine purposes; rather we are individuals with buffered identities disengaged from others. Expressive varieties of individualism that developed especially in the 1960s gave this aspect of secularization a bog boost. it sees human rationality and power as key values, with an active, interventionist goal of controlling both nature and other people to achieve human goals. it works to exclude religion from important areas such as politics, economics, or ethics.

Religion: as human being world-construction Through the process of reification : externalization, objectivization and internalization. Berger text with passages in bold.htm

Secularization: long process in the history---manifested in many ways with many reasons. One interesting point: Protestant reformation reduced the sacraments and simplified the sacred, left a narrow path for human being to God. And its institutional/social form also accelerate the process.

Religion no more the shelter to protect modern people from the fear and threaten. Broken Sacred Canopy.

Desecularization (Peter,1999)Challenge to the Secularization Hypothesis in the late 1980s.

My point is that the assumption that we live in a secularized world is false. The world today, with some exceptions to which I will come presently, is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever. This means that a whole body of literature by historians and social scientists loosely labeled secularization theory is essentially mistaken. In my early work I ontributed to this literature The desecularization of the world ___ - Google .htm

modernization also produces counter-secularization movements, which have two strategies: rejection (religious revolution or religious subcultures) or adaptation (Vatican II ).

De-secularization: Religious thriving movements: fundamentalism religious groups, US

Evidence against the secularization hypothesis:1, statistics show the continues interest in religion and low rates of atheism.Gallup international survey1999 shows 2% atheism in US and 15% in W. Europe, 2, Trends in contemporary religion are not that different than the past. 3, Trend away from Religion are really part of more general trend away from social involvement. 4, unusual sociocultural factors influence secularization in the less religious areas. believer population percentage1980 62%1952 59%1926 56%1916 53%1906 51%1890 45%1870 35%1860 37%1850 34%1776 17%

Finke, Roger and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America 1776-1990 , New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, l992.

II,1 Secularization, R.I.P - rest in peace New Paradigm of SecularizationR. Stark & William Sims Bainbridge1985 Roger Finke& Rodney Stark2000

attacked the 5 things in the secularization prophesies one by one: Secularization, R_I_P - rest in peace Sociology of Religion Find Articles at BNET.htm1, modernization----post modernism2,not institutional differentiation, but also person piety------not true. 3, presumed incompatibility between religion and science------is a mythical 4, an absorbing state, irreversible, immunity ------exceptional in Easter European5, Western Christendom, --------many other religious groups and other areas as exceptional too.

---reflections: how to rate the individual religiousness or religiosity uni-dimensional approach, the church attendance and participation multi-dimensional analysis: religious orientation and religious commitment.----Then how to understand the religious secularization especially how to evaluate the secularization and de-secularization in Catholic churches.

II, 2 Theory of religious economy/Religious Marketand rational-choice theory

A religious economy consists of all of the religious activity going on in any society: a market of current and potential adherents, a set of one or more organizations seeking to attract or maintain adherents, and the religious offered by cultures supply. (R.Stark $ R. Finke,2000) http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=N4p9eiXV6dMC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=A+religious+economy+consists+of&source=bl&ots=e51_DSw5Ys&sig=2oN7WfHP3oTJcEqxcjOhwZqyO4c&hl=zh-CN&ei=VTzZS57fFpTc_Qb3rIy2Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBA#

Rational choiceAs a coherent model of the religious market, it explains how the market works:individuals choosing their religious activities based on their own assessments of their needs. Rational Individuals act rationally, weighing the costs and benefits of potential actions, and choosing those actions that maximize their net benefits.The ultimate preferences/needs that individuals use to assess costs and benefits tend not to vary much from person to person or time to time. Social outcomes constitute the equilibrium that emerge from the aggregation/interaction of individual actions Laurence Iannaccone (1988, 1990, 1995a, 1995b, 1997) Very different from those irrational faith---faith leap in philosophy.

II,3 Religion revival and religious Renovation1, religious secularization is self-limiting processrevival and renovation are other aspect of religious change which coincides with secularization. religious revival: sect, it is the earlier rejection to the declination of the traditional religions. More conservative. religious renovation: cults movementeither rejection or adaption.

2, interesting assumptions:declination of traditional religion goes with the resurgence of new religions. This Religion change consists of the history of world religions. Monopoly of one religion never could be the case in modern era, New religions could be less tension, then to be church (tradition) sooner or later. (Ecumenicalism has no hope?) the society which restrict the supply of the product or the state imposed the monopoly of the supply are the main reason of the secularization.

III, A Chinese perspectiveTwo observations to secularization1, Western models: the two paradigms of secularization confined their observation and application to Christendom though some of the sociologist have the ambition for its universal applicability2, both the secularization paradigms have said something with the individual religiosity and the religious participation (membership and attendance) in formal religious organizations. However, the religious traditions and regulations drastically different from European and American. How to understand our Chinese religiousness? --------Related questionsDo we have the process of secularization? When did it starts? Do Chinese religions has the similar character of the Western Religion?

a China without religion in the eyes of the thinkers of Chinese Renaissance In China, it is very difficult to write a history book of religion, concerning to the development of religious doctrine and transition of church.--- Confucian thinking is very pragmatic, and incompatible to those features of Religion. There is no any Confucian churches in China.----We dont have any native religion, except those foreign religions. ------ Liang Qichao,

Chinese intellects are independent from any religions, China is a country without religions, Chinese is a nation not commit to religions. ----Hu Shih,(1934).

Chinese Renaissance: the new movement which began in 1917 and which was sometimes called the "New Culture Movement," the "New Thought" movement or "The New Tide---- the youth of the nation are seeking those promised and pointed to the new birth of an old people and an old civilization.

III,1, A diffused religionAfter Chinese Renaissance Movement which dominated by Scientific ideology, and the ideological transformation process which regarded Religion as opiate, what kind of religion left in China?

The attitude during the Chinese Renaissance and afterwards movement are kind of response to secularization. Those rationalization hypothesis are also part of Nationalism.

Institutional ReligionDiffused Religion Institutional religion: independent worldview, symbolic system and liturgical worship, independent organization. Such as Taoism, Buddhism in china. diffused religion: have some theological theory, worship objects and adherents, but integrate into the secular system and become part of secular societal function. Such as ancestor worship, popular worship, etc. C.K. Yang(1967)

Diffused religionReligion diffused in varied ways, and become part of everyday life for many Chinese throughout history. It have many manifestions:Familiar worship: Kitchen God (Tsao-shen) to wood spirit tablets representing ancestors. Culture system: mourning and mortuary rites, festivals with religious themes, temple fairs, social and business organizations , divination, geomancy (feng-shuai), storytelling. Confucianism is an ethicopolitcal cult: a divinely sanctioned central government ("the Mandate of Heaven"), the government-sponsored cult of Heaven, the prestigious civil service exams as veritable incarnations of star gods.

Non-institutional religion and secularization theoryDiffused religion theorist notices that since Chinese central government controlled religion dramatically. Although China didn't persecute people because of religious affiliation, but the Chinsee government controlled religion much of the time. -----means that institutional religion even has less influence than diffused religions in China.

The relationship between Government regulation and religion transformtion would be an interested area to reflect the revival and renovation phenomonon of religion in China, and to be a good complementary to the theory of Secularization.

Catholic popultation in Chinayear 1369 1949 1999 2008Dioceses 1 143 110 97 Bishops 70 50 Priests 1200 1800+Churches 5600 6000+Seminaries 36 20+ Seminarians 1900 1200 Sisters 3000+ 3000+novice 1000+ 3000+Total population: 30,000 3.25million 5 5.60 Protestant Christian 700,000 40-70million

III-2,1 liberating role of new paradigm to ChineseActs of Faith has been the most important textbook in Sociology of Religion in China. Economy market, rational choice, religious supply, religious needs, need niches becomes very popular terms, provokes lot of scholars passions.

The implication of this passion-----religion is market with it own autonomy, less regulation would bring more prosperity and health environment to the society. Behind is the claim of the religious freedom and less government regulations and interference.

Religion will be died out, which has not only been predicted by sociologists, but also by Marxism. New paradigm disclose that religion will be thriving and renovation/revival would be the normality.

III,2.2, Triple markets religion in Chinaa triple-market model: a red market (officially permitted religions), a black market (officially banned religions), and a gray market (religions with an ambiguous legal/illegal status). The gray market concept accentuates the non-institutionalized religiosity. Yang fenggang, 2006.