2. Quiz
Question 1:
According to the account in chapter 1 religion’s political influence
A. Has remained relatively steady for the last 500 years.
B. Suffered a long term decline followed by a resurgence in the last 40 years.
C. Suffered a long term decline until the events of September 11th , 2001.
D. has steadily decreased due to “secularization.”
Question 2: Name one of the factors discussed in Chapter 2 that the authors believe affects the political behavior of religious actors.

3. Secularization Thesis
Short version (C. Wright Mills):
Once the world was filled with the sacred-in thought, practice, and institutional form. After the Reformation and the Renaissance, the forces of modernization swept across the globe and secularization, a corollary historical process, loosened the dominance of the sacred. In due course, the sacred shall disappear altogether except, possibly, in the private realm.

4. Why Might Secularization Theory still be relevant
1. Even the authors of God’s Century see it as largely valid until about
2. One does see evidence of a decline of religion in economically developed nations (especially Europe).
3. Even when religion doesn’t decline overall, secularization theory may help us understand how religion adapts to or resists “modernization”.

5. Strength of Religion by Level of Development (From Norris and Inglehart/ World Values Survey)

6. % Who Go to Church at Least Once a Week

7. % Who Believe in God

8. % Who Believe in Life After Death

9. Religious Decline in the U.S.?
Belief in God s % %
Unaffiliated with any
Religious tradition % %
Never attend religious
Services % %

10. One Version of the Secularization Thesis (Drawing on the Work of James Davison Hunter)
Impacts on Religion
Isolation (the Amish?)
Decline/Death of Religion (Strong Secularization Hypothesis)
Adaptation (Religion changes to be more compatible with “modernity.”)
Resistance (Religious actors organize to resist the forces of “modernity.”)
Features of “modernity”
Functional Rationality
Cultural Pluralism
Structural pluralism

11. Functional Rationality
"the infusion of rational controls through all spheres of human experience."
Impacts on Religion
Decline/Death of Religion (Strong Secularization Hypothesis)
Adaptation
Resistance (Is resistance futile?)

12. Cultural Pluralism
"the division of society into subsocieties with more or less distinct cultural traditions."
Impacts on Religion
Decline/Death of Religion (Strong Secularization Hypothesis)
Adaptation
Resistance

13. Structural Pluralism/Differentiation
"the historically unique dichotomization of life into public and private spheres."
Impacts on Religion
Decline/Death of Religion (Strong Secularization Hypothesis)
Adaptation
Resistance (God’s Century