2.1.3.1 Meaning of the Terms
A distinction needs to be made between secularism and secularisation. Secularism is an ideology that seeks to structure and interpret the public world without reference to God or religion. Historically, committed secularists have often been few in number, but have frequently been aggressive and articulate in argument. While some secularists are atheists and more agnostics, secularism need not be antagonistic to religion as such. Rather, it asserts that religious faith should be confined to the private domain of individual, family and voluntary life, and should not impinge on the formal working of government, civic or national institutions. In this sense, secularism finds expression in the French principle of laicité, and the popular American conception of the ‘separation of church and state’. In distinction from secularism, secularisation describes the social process through which, as one common definition has it, ‘religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance’.[1] Secularisation may be aided and abetted by secularism, but it may also be attributable to less self-consciously ideological forces, such as industrialisation, consumerism and family breakdown.
2.1.3.2 Current Understanding
The complex process of secularisation has to some degree ebbed and flowed since the Enlightenment, and is much debated by scholars. Until recently many sociologists believed that modern societies, including Britain, were set on an irreversible course towards a thoroughly scientific and technological worldview which would eventually dispense with religion altogether. The fact that many advanced societies have not taken this course, and have indeed experienced something of a resurgence of religion in recent years, has widely shaken secularisation theory. The decline in religious faith in Europe is now seen as the phenomenon to be explained, rather than its persistence in countries like the United States, China or South Korea.[2]
2.1.3.3 An Ambiguous Picture
While secularisation cannot be assumed as a corollary of technological progress, the fact that religious belief, practice and institutions are no longer as central to our way of life in Britain as once they were, is indisputable. Declining church attendance, decreased use of the church for ‘rites of passage’, and disregard in many schools for the obligation to provide a daily act of worship, are but some of the more obvious examples of this trend. In addition, the marginalising of even the established church, as demonstrated, for example, in the Millennium celebrations and in public policy formation, lends weight to the idea of secularisation. Having said all this, the picture is not straightforward. Counter evidence is seen in the continued presence of Church of England bishops in the House of Lords; in the continuation of prayer in Parliament; in the compulsory status of religious education in schools; in the widespread outpouring of grief which found quasi-religious expression after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997; and in the fact that many still identify themselves as Christian, and even identify with a specific denominational label, even if they do not regularly attend worship. Some argue that in spite of poor rates of participation in church, belief in the central tenets of the Christian faith remains widespread. Grace Davie’s description of such phenomena under the rubric of ‘believing without belonging’ has resonated widely in this regard.[3] Sociologists are giving increasing attention to the varied expressions of spirituality that exist outside institutional Christian churches, and mounting evidence of ambiguity suggests that describing Britain as ‘secular’ is at best simplistic and at worst quite inaccurate.
2.1.3.4 Submissions to the Commission
A majority of those who presented papers and made oral contributions to the Commission were not content with the description of the United Kingdom as a secular society. As one respondent commented, secularisation ‘is in the eye of the beholder’, with secularists seeing Britain as far too religious, Christians viewing it as far too secular, and ‘those disposed to a right-wing view of the world’ regarding it as ‘far too pluralist.’ Many presenting evidence saw the term ‘secular’ as inappropriate because of the burgeoning modern-day interest in ‘spirituality’, and because of their own experience of goodwill towards religion. Others spoke in paradoxical terms of a pervading ‘secular spirituality’. Even those persuaded that Britain had become substantially secular did not assume that this would lead to the complete demise of Christianity. The future, it was argued, is never a straight-line projection of the present, and the existence of faith communities serving as pockets of resistance to secularisation could be taken as a sign of hope. Even so, some contributors emphasised that these communities need to be made more accessible and informal if they are to attract those who are currently unchurched. 2.1.3.5 Role of the Media Several witnesses laid the blame for Britain’s unduly secular image at the door of the media. Media leaders present the world as they see it and as they think their audiences see it, and unless they have contact with faith issues and religious communities they will convey a picture of the world as unreligious. A weighty analysis recommended by one of the respondents to the Commission argued that the media were ‘unrelentingly hostile to religion’[4] and attributed this to a variety of factors, including a loss of deference in society, a conflict of values, and ‘the ingrained hostility of the secular elite’. If faith is to impact 21st century society in Britain, it is essential that Christians play their full role within the media, and that the voices of secularism there be qualified and challenged by those committed to the gospel.
[1] Bryan Wilson, Religion in Secular Society (London: Watts, 1966), xiv.
[2] See The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Peter L. Berger, (ed.) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).
[3] The phrase was coined by Grace Davie. See Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994).
[4] Lecture given at Gresham College by Madeleine Bunting, Religious Affairs Editor, The Guardian on 11th November 1996, entitled “The Media and Religion”.
