religion – Page 3 – UWS BA ePDPs

Societies and lifestyles- week 2

This week, I learned a lot more about religion and society. Before the lecture and tutorial I had never heard of ‘Unchurched Spirituality’, but have since learned that the term means, spirituality that is not related to or follows an organised religion and usually does not follow the doctrines of a religion. In the tutorial and independent study tasks we also learned more about the theorists behind these views such as, Max Weber, Bruce Lincoln and Karl Marx. I feel that I still don’t fully understand the works of these theorists and so will have to research more about them in my own time to gain a bit more knowledge and insight into their work and contribution to religion and society. I also enjoyed learning about the different practices and beliefs of different branches of religions, such as Jehovas Witnesses and, i.e -refusing blood and also I found some of the clips we were shown in class intriguing, i.e- the video about the church who use snakes in their beliefs and practices. I was able to see the positive and negative aspects of this. For example, the dangers of certain practices but also the benefit to that religious community such as a sense of belonging.

I think that this module is helping me to understand further about religion and the diversity of religion in society today. I am beginning to realise that there are a lot more branches of religion that I knew of in the world and I think that this will help me when in the classroom because there will probably be a mix of cultures and religion within one class. I will have a better understanding of more cultures and not be more open minded towards a much vaster variety of religions and cultures.

Religion and Society – Part 2

The focus of this weeks lecture and tutorial was: How religion influences culture, how culture influences religion and ‘unchurched’ spirituality. For many people region and culture come hand in hand. They are part of that persons identity, they influence a … Continue reading →

Religion, Culture and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality

From the lecture I learned that religion shapes culture and culture shapes religion within society. Religious culture can be recognised as a form of identity through things such as the music people listen to and what they choose to eat. There are many claims within religion, culture and social issues such as material claims … Continue reading Religion, Culture and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality →

RELIGION, SOCIETY AND DIVERSITY 2 – Unchurched Spirituality

We learned about more aspects of religion and focused on ‘unchurched’ spirituality. Before the lecture, I had never heard of the term ‘unchurched’ spirituality so I was interested in learning more about it. This means a type of spirituality that is not related with an organised religion. We also discussed more on how religion and … Continue reading RELIGION, SOCIETY AND DIVERSITY 2 – Unchurched Spirituality →

Religion, Culture and Spirituality

Today’s Society & Lifestyles inputs focused on religion and culture, and how the two are connected. It’s almost a “chicken and egg” concept: throughout history, religion has influenced culture and culture has influenced religion, and the two are so closely interlinked that it is almost impossible to separate the two. I was most interested in …

Continue reading “Religion, Culture and Spirituality”

Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spirituality

This week we looked at religion, culture and ‘unchurched spirituality’. Prior to today’s class I was unaware of the ways in which religion and culture are interlinked. Similarly to last […]

This week we looked at religion, culture and ‘unchurched spirituality’. Prior to today’s class I was unaware of the ways in which religion and culture are interlinked. Similarly to last week, I felt that learning about the views of different scholars enabled us to look at the topics in more depth from a non-biased approach. This week we could compare the two scholars – Max Weber and Karl Marx – as they both had completely different views about religion. Having previously studied Sociology I have come across these two theorists before when studying social class. Regardless of being familiar with their work I was unaware of their work on religion. I am going to read more of each theorist’s work on religion to prepare me for the exam.

We later looked at ‘unchurched spirituality’. Over several years there has been a great decline in the number of people who would consider themselves to be religious. Unchurched spirituality are forms of spirituality that are not associated with any organised religions. I found this part of the lecture incredibly interesting, however, I also found that unchurched spirituality – in some cases- is very extreme.

Religion, Culture and “Unchurched Spirituality”

I enjoyed this week’s Society and Lifestyle lecture, tutorial and independent and found it interesting however I also felt that it was slightly confusing. During the lecture and individual study tasks, we explored new scholars and their theories of religion in society. We also deepened our knowledge on religions impact on society and vice versa … Continue reading Religion, Culture and “Unchurched Spirituality” →

Secularisation and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality – Is This Really The End of Mainstream Religion?

Religion within society, and society within religion spans far further than just mainstream churches such as Catholicism, Islam and Judaism. Within faith communities, different people have different ideas. For example, if we take the Christian Church, up until 1517, the Church was mainly considered to be Roman Catholic, A German man named Martin Luther devised the … Continue reading Secularisation and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality – Is This Really The End of Mainstream Religion? →

Religion within society, and society within religion spans far further than just mainstream churches such as Catholicism, Islam and Judaism. Within faith communities, different people have different ideas. For example, if we take the Christian Church, up until 1517, the Church was mainly considered to be Roman Catholic, A German man named Martin Luther devised the Protestantism movement after what was considered to be errors in the teachings and practices of the Catholic church, hence Christianity split into what we now consider to be the two most worshipped communities, the Traditional Catholic Church, and the Protestant Church.

This was really the start of secularisation, as many people began to question their own beliefs and chose which religion they wanted to follow – however, religion was still fundamental within society and it played a part on the way people lived their life; from the way they dressed to the way they worshiped.

In the 2011 Census, 65.2% of people identifies themselves as Christians, and 0.84% of people Identified as Muslim. Also, 27.8% of the people identified as ‘No Religion’. This all changed in the 2011 Census where 53.8% of people identifies them selves as Christian – a drop of almost 11.4%. The number of people who identified as Muslim increased to 1.4% – which may or may not be linked to other social factors such as immigration, and population growth. What is really interesting in my opinion, is that 37% of people identified themselves as ‘No Religion’. Does this prove the theory that secularisation is also linked to de-Christianisation? And does it mean that once regarded one of the most important social factors in the Western World, people no longer feel the need for the faith and religion? Or does it indeed prove that secularisation is not the lose of faith, but in fact the channelling of spirituality to other sources within Western culture and society?

Many theorists and highly regarded sociologists have looked at religions place in society. Amongst the most popular theories, is the one of Karl Marx (1818-1883) where he suggests that religion is just ‘the opium of the people’ used to bear their pain and suffering. He also saw it as a tool to oppress and control the masses, giving false consciousness in oppressed people to accept their predicament. He felt that the promise of a better life was just created as part of a capitalist illusion; which included the creation of a man-made God.

Max Weber (1864-1920) had a completely different idea of the place of religion. He suggested that the protestant church founded by Luther, gave rise to the Western world as it is today. He claimed that Protestantism contributed to the socio-economic patters within the Western society, enabling an atmosphere in which the capitalist system could thrive in this sector of the world and in Western society. He saw religion as an agent of social change.

So what about ‘unchurched’ spirituality? What causes it? Well, after the tutorials today, I figured that the leading cause of ‘unchurched’ spirituality is secularisation itself. So that leads to the question – what causes people o lose faith in religion itself?

Modern Education systems expose young people to the sciences and to a program of natural thinking, allowing them to find the facts that science has uncovered, and apply that to the real world. Guleski (2013) believes education gives young people the empowerment to make decisions based on their understanding. Take Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (1859) for example. People are now believing the facts uncovered around evolution as it can be backed up with evidence. Whereas there is no evidence proving or disproving the existence of a God or the doctrines of the Church suggesting the story of Genesis.

Also, with a booming Western society, people now have the money to afford leisure and necessity, and poorer people tend to turn to supernatural meaning for answers. Due to the income that many families now have, they no longer need to rely on the Church for prayer in the hope of gaining what they need, as they can just go out to a shop and find it. Ingleheart backs this up when he stated “When material conditions improve, the need for religious solace depreciates”.

So in theory we could say that secularisation and de-Christianisation is caused by the boom in the western World caused by Protestantism, meaning that the fall in worshippers of the Catholic and Protestant church, could be in turn related to the division of the Church itself.

I feel it is important to express at this point that this piece of writing is not an attack of any religion or form of spirituality, but just a summary of my understanding to secularisation and ‘unchurched’ spirituality and how that impacts on society today. If I have offended anybody in any way, then I do sincerely apologise, I insist that it was not intended.

Sean

Religion, Society and Diversity 2

Today I learned about more aspects of religion and focused on ‘unchurched’ spirituality. I had never heard of the term ‘unchurched’ spirituality so I was interested to gain an understanding of what it meant. This means a type of spirituality that … Continue reading →

Religion, Culture and Unchurched

My learning of the Society and Lifestyle module continues, today’s input was based on “Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spiritually. Some topics addressed today have left my rather perplexed and I will definitely have to devote further independent study to these aspects. The lecture focused on religion, culture and the term unchurched spiritually, today I consolidated … Continue reading Religion, Culture and Unchurched →

The lecture focused on religion, culture and the term unchurched spiritually, today I consolidated my understanding of some facets of last week’s initial lecture. Today I learnt we acquire religion and that religion and culture inversely influence each other, conveying that religion gives us an identity and possible model a way of life, highlighting that religion can be a guidance to what we eat, wear and music we listen to, et cetera. I also learnt, in-depth, the social issues (either good or can influence problems) that can underpin religion, for instance ‘material claims’, which implies religions can encourage followers to be generous and helpful. Likewise, ‘altruism’ which is in contrast. I gained a better acknowledgment of scholars, their stance on religion/culture and their social alignment. In particularly the ideologies of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Bruce Lincoln. Further to this I understood what is meant to be ‘Unchurched Spiritually’ conveying that religion takes place outside a place of worship and the religion is not based on creed or a formed structure, this facet of religion is increasingly evolving, as ‘organised’ religion and churches decrease.

I found the concepts addressed in the lecture to be interesting and not too difficult to understand, this is in contrast to the tutorial, researching Karl Marx and the modern criticism of religion to be I discovered this to be somewhat complex to comprehend, it was rather challenging to find journals, books or academic. The main point I attained from this is presently there is not the same force or emphasis to follow a religion as there was in past centuries.

In order to advanced my understanding of the subjects of today’s inputs I will continue to look into further reading of academic journals, articles and books in addition to notes and past paper questions in order to prepare for the exam questions, but also to secure my understanding.

As a student teacher and perspective teacher it is important that I support pupils, their religion, culture and the way of life they follow, also keeping in mind that every religion is unique and have varying lifestyles.

Therefore, it is important that I continue to revise all aspects discussed today and in past lectures in order to make better sense of the topic of religion and culture, and the subsequently impact of religion and identity, ensuring I am relating my responses to scholars and their ideologies and theories.