1. “At the Crossroads of the ‘Secular’, the ‘Religious’ and the ‘In-Between’: Opportunities for Christian Witness Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Study Days On “God and the World: Religion and Society” at the St. Nicholas Centre, Ipswich 27 th and 28 th September 2013 Professor Paul Weller © Not for direct quotation or reproduction without permission of the presenter

2. 2011 Census Headlines on Religion or Belief More Secular? Less Christian? and More Multi-Faith?

3. Religion and the Census: Position Pre-2001  England and Wales 1851 Census of worship  From the inception of Northern Ireland, it had questions  Northern Ireland questions were originally open for write-in  Originally in England, Wales and Scotland ethnic question introduced  2001 saw the introduction of religion questions

4. Why/why not religion in the Census? Arguments Against  Religion is a private matter  Respondents will not answer a religion question  Adding questions adds cost to the Census Arguments For  The re-emergence of religion into public life  The service provision from religious groups within civil society  The EU Amsterdam Treaty and Employment Directive presaged new law  Avoidance of discrimination and inclusive planning required religion data

5. Religion England ScotlandWalesN. IrelandUK Total UK % Buddhist139,0466,8305,407533151,8160.3% Christian35,251,2443,294,5452,087,2421,446,38642,079,41771.6% Hindu546,9825,5645,439825558,8101.0% Jewish257,6716,448 2,256365266,7400.5% Muslim1,524,88742,55721,7391,9431,591,1262.7% Sikh327,3436,572 2,015219336,1490.6% Other Religion143,81126,9746,9091,143178,8370.3% Total38,190,9843,389,4902,131,0071,451,41445,162,895 No religion7,171,3321,394,460537,935*9,103,72715.5% Not stated3,776,515278,061234,143*4,288,7197.3% No religion/not stated total10,947,8471,672,521772,078233,85313,392,466 Grand Totals49,138,8315,062,0112,903,0851,685,26758,789,194100.00% Religion and Belief in the UK: 2001 Census Data

6. “Three Dimensional” Statistics in a “Four-Nations” State Table 3: Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by percentages of the population of England ReligionEngland 2001England 2011 Buddhist 0.3% 0.5% Christian71.7%59.4% Hindu 1.1% 1.5% Jewish 0.5% 0.5% Muslim 3.1% 5.0% Sikh 0.7% 0.8% Other Religion 0.3% 0.4% No religion14.6%24.7% Not stated 7.7% 7.2%

7. Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by numbers and proportions of the population of the London Borough of Newham, and ranking by local authority ReligionNumbers in 2001 Numbers in 2011 Percentage in 2001 Percentage in 2011 Ranking in 2011 Buddhist1,5922,4460.7%0.8%32 Christian114,247123,11946.8%40.0%342 Hindu16,90126,9626.9%8.8%7 Jewish4813420.2%0.1%153 Muslim59,29398,45624.3%32.0%2 Sikh6,8976,4212.8%2.1%19 Other Religion6641,0900.3%0.4%213 Total all religions200,075258,83682.00%84.2%- No religion21,97829,3739.0%9.5%348 Not stated21,83819,7759.0%6.4%283 No religion/ not stated43,81649,14818.00%15.9%- Total243,891307,984100.00% N = 384

8. Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by numbers and proportions of the population of Norwich, and ranking by local authority ReligionNumbers in 2001 Numbers in 2011 Percentage in 2001 Percentage in 2011 Ranking in 2011 Buddhist4859780.40.7%35 Christian73,42859,51560.444.9%331 Hindu3481,0170.30.8%113 Jewish2392410.20.2%101 Muslim8872,6120.72.0%116 Sikh1021680.10.1%169 Other Religion6198860.50.7%17 Total all religions76,10865,41962.649.4%- No religion33,76656,26827.842.5%1 Not stated11,67610,8279.68.2%39 No religion/ not stated45,44267,09537.4%50.7%- Total121,550132,514100.00% N = 384

9. The Demographic “Shape” of Religious Groups in England (2001 Census)

10. Religion or Belief Question in England and in Wales 20012011

11. Religion or Belief Question in Scotland 2001(current religion)2011

12. Religion or Belief (brought up) Question in Scotland 2001

13. Religion or Belief Question in Northern Ireland 2001(current religion)2011

14. Some difficulties with the Census data -General Census issues -Identification not belief or practice -What about the children -What about the dual identity -What about the “spiritual”

16. Religious Diversity, “Colour-Coding” & “Health Warning” As the American scholar of religion Diana Eck has put it the map of what she calls our current “georeligious reality” cannot “be color-coded as to its Christian, Muslim, Hindu identity” since, “It is precisely the interpenetration, proximity and interrelation of ancient civilizations, with both the conflict and transformation inherent in such proximity, that is the hallmark of the late twentieth century.” [Eck, D (2000), “Dialogue and Method: Reconstructing the Study of Religion”, in Patten, K. and Ray, B. (eds), A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Postmodern Age, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 131-149. (135)]

17. Exploring research into the “non-religious” Sariya Contractor, Tristram Hooley, Nicki Moore, Kingsley Purdam and Paul Weller “Researching the ‘Non-Religious’: Methods and Methodological Issues, Challenges and Controversies” in Abby Day, Giselle Vincett and Christopher R. Cotter (eds.), Social Identities Between the Sacred and Secular AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Series Ashgate, 2013

18. Who are the “no religion”? Terminology? Non-Religious, Atheists, Secularists, Humanists? “It has become something of a cliché to begin social-scientific studies of non-religion, secularity, atheism, and related topics by bewailing the dearth of previous research” S. Bullivant and L. Lee (2012) ‘Interdisciplinary Studies of Non-religion and Secularity: The State of the Union’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27 (1):19-27

19. Kinds of religion  “Believing without belonging” (Grace Davie)  “The ordinary God” (Grace Davie)  “Believing in belonging” (Abby Day)  “Belonging without believing” (Paul Weller)  “Non-Realism” (Don Cupitt)  “Fuzzy fidelity” (David Voas)  “The in-between” or “excluded middle” (Abby Day etc)

20. What’s in a name? “Non-religion is anything which is primarily defined by a relationship of difference to religion” L. Lee (2012), ‘Research Note: Talking about a Revolution: Terminology for the New Field of Non-religion Studies’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27(1) 129-139  What is the default position?  How?: “A journey away from faith”; “coming out as non- religious”, “never knew anything different!”  Diversity: Atheist, Humanist, Secularist, Agnostic, Non- believers, non-religious, etc:  Labels as problematic: “ […] but I have no desire to give myself another label”

21. Working definitions of ‘non-religious’ Differing and Nuanced Relationships with Religion  “Religion is a set of rules. In every religion you have rules for prayers or the crucifix and you have to belief in God. People who don’t believe in god and don’t have a set of rules are non-religious”  “ … if you imagine a diagram and you've got a circle in the centre and that’s religious and then everything else outside of that is non- religious! Because if you define what’s religious then surely non- religious is everything else”  “A stance that is based on scientific and logical reasoning, a moral stance and the possibility to be spiritual (without being religious)”

22. Project findings – unfair attitudes The attitudes  Looked down upon  Perceived as lesser human beings “there is this default position that you are supposed to be religious preferably Christian in this country and if you’re not you are in some way a bad person, or a deficient person or a dodgy person in some shape or form” Implications of such attitudes  Occasional difficulties with ‘religious friends’  assumptions about attending religious functions  more serious implications

23. A “Three Dimensional” Socio-Religious Reality “The contemporary religious landscape of the UK should be seen as exhibiting contours that are ‘Christian, secular and religiously plural’.” P. Weller (2005), Time for a Change: Reconfiguring Religion, State and Society, London: T & T Clark, p. 73

24. What does “three dimensional” mean? “Thus, the contemporary socio-religious reality of England and the UK might be described as ‘three dimensional’ in contrast with a more ‘one dimensional’ Christian inheritance or the ‘two dimensional’ religious-secular modifications made to that self-understanding during the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” P. Weller (2005), Time for a Change: Reconfiguring Religion, State and Society, London: T & T Clark, p. 73)

25. Over to you! In relation to at least one of the three (pastoral, prophetic and priestly) dimensions of the Church’s ministry and witness and: in the context of thinking about the relationship of the “religious”, the “secular” and the “in-between” Identify something which the church(es) in which you have leadership responsibilities, either: (a) are doing (b) ought/could be doing