Secularisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Secularisation - Essay showcaseIt was Weber1 who first gave the sociology of religion the seminal belief of secularisation, later to be developed in greater occurrence by his colleague Troeltsch2 to describe what could be characterised as the decline in the influence of religion on society. The Latin root of the word - saeculum - provides a hint of its ecclesiastical origin, alone its ambiguous meanings (era, age, the world, forever, etc.) act around as a warning that every human effort to define it, much less evenfall it down into a neatly classified field of accessible scientific study, would either be an out(predicate) task or a challenge that would take forever.Sociologist Larry Shiner3 tried to arrive at a universally accepted modern definition of the word secularisation for purposes of both empirical research and interpretation. He argued that in that location was a total lack of agreement as to what the limit signified and how it could be measured. His paper attempt to bring the secularisation concept into focus by considering its history, types of usage and application, a critique of various forms of the concept as analytical tools, and a critique of the secular-religious polarity. However, due to the terms polemical past, its extremely varied definitions, and its frequent utilization as a blanket term to cover several disparate processes, he concluded that the term secularisation should either be abandoned or be explicitly recognised as a comprehensive term covering three complementary but distinct processes desacralisation, differentiation, and transposition.After him, Martin argued that the word secular, comparable the word religious, is amongst the richest of all words in its range of meaningfull of internal contradictions of which the conventional dictionary scarcely gives a hint. 4 Such a warning, however, should not be a source of discouragement but rather the prelude to an interesting discussion that is full of promise and insight t hat can help social scientists to better understand past, present, and future events.Martin identified four groups of meanings of the word secularisation 5(1) Decline in the power, wealth, influence, range of control, and prestige of ecclesiastical (church) institutions. As a result, there is considerably less importance of the churchs percentage in society, in the State, and in the professions. (2) Diminution in the frequency, number, intensity, importance, and efficacy of religious customs, practices, and rituals. These are treated as of marginal importance in life, leading to lower over-all attendance to religious worship, a decline in vocations, lower level or religious knowledge and more liberality in personal conduct. (3) Demystification and interpreting of religious concepts and symbols within a human and temporal reference. This includes rejection of mysterious and non-observable truths and turning to naturalistic, scientific, and objective facts. (4) Decrease in the sense of the supernatural depth and meaning, marked by rejection, indifference, lack of seriousness, dedication, and concern. However, whilst Martin associated secularisation with the decline of what could be characterised as religiosity or religious practices according to the norms of organised (Christian) institutions, he also pointed out a serial of paradoxes existing within each of these definition classes that hint at