Relevance: Sociology paper I & II
The word secular is derived from the Latin word ‘secular’, which means the
‘present age or generation’. The word secular came to be associated with the
social process of secularisation. Secularisation came into use in Europe, to describe the transfer of territories previously under the control of the church to the dominion of secular authority or the state. The distinction that was already prevalent in Christian conception between the sacred and secular (sacred as all that is supernatural, and secular as all that is mundane) was brought into the fore to assert the superiority of the sacred.
The Sociological Connotation of Secularization
Social thinkers have used the word secularisation to indicate a process whereby the religious institutions and religious conceptions and understanding have lost control in worldly matters – economy, polity, justice, health, family, and so on. Instead, there emerged empirical and rational procedures and conceptions about the world in general. Describing the process of secularisation, Bryan R. Wilson writes that in secularisation process “the various social institutions gradually become distinct from one another and increasingly free of the matrix of religious assumptions that had earlier informed. Inspired and dominated their operation.
Prior to this change, social action over a very wide field of human activity and organisation (including work, social and interpersonal relationships, juridical procedures, socialisation, healing) is regulated in accordance with supernaturalism pre-conceptions. The process of structure differentiation in which social institutions (the economy, the polity, morality, justice, education, health, and family) become recognised as distinctive concerns operating with considerable autonomy. It is a process in which conceptions of the supernatural lose their sovereignty over human affairs, a pattern broadly identified as secularism. Conceptions of the supernatural are gradually displaced from all social institutions except those specifically devoted to this these are increasingly circumscribed religious institutions (Wilson).
The definition of secularisation is greatly bound by the definition of religion. As long as religion is defined in, not so abstract terms and is defined substantively as beliefs, attitudes, activities, institutions and structures pertaining to the supernatural, it is possible to assess the effect of decline of religious influence.
But if we were to define religion in functional terms, as some sociologists have done, as any set of beliefs, ideas and activities that perform indispensable functions to the society it is very difficult to employ the term secularisation, because when we use the term secularisation we are discussing the process that leads to the decline of supernaturally oriented activities and beliefs in all aspects of life. And a distinct separation of various institutions in the society. We can see the separation of the supernatural belief from secular activities by the. Way we approach and understand disease for instance. We don’t always have a supernatural explanation to understand disease and illness. We have scientific and empirical explanations instead. These changes have, in fact, affected even religion itself.
Secularisation within Religion
One aspect of secularisation is that religions modify their doctrines and practices in response to the changing need of their members and in-response to changes in society. For example, in 1976, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America officially allowed women to become priests. And, in England it was only recently that the Church allowed women to become priests, causing much controversy. We can see how the Church responded to the changing situation and the position of women in society. Secularisation also influences the content of religious belief and in doing so it leads, many times, to the development of a sect.
Secularisation in religion is usually accompanied by increase in attention to public issues. Secular and profane activities have become as important as this sacred. Thus, we find religious institutions getting involved with running of modern hospitals and secular educational institutions or engaging in philanthropic activities. Religion in industrial societies often reflects the pragmatism of our age, and in doing so, is increasingly moving away from the supernatural. So far, we have discussed what the term secularisation meant in its various situations and. aspects. We still have not talked about the term secularism.
Secularism as a Value
Secularism was an ideological goal of the new political philosophy and movement after the French Revolution. Still later in 1851 George Jacob Holyoake coined the term secularism. He declared it as the only rational basis of political arid social organisation. Holyoake questioning the religious basis of civil society, recommended secularism as state ideology which promotes human welfare by material means and makes the service of others its duty. Secularism as a progressive ideology was a necessary qualification for liberal, democratic state of the post French Revolution. These connotations are applied even to a modern democratic state now. A modem state by its definition and liberal and democratic policy makes no distinction between groups, classes etc. Within society, irrespective of religious affiliation. The political philosophy on the pout of the state required that the state shall not impose any religion on people and did not prohibit practice of religion by a section of the people. with secularism as an ideological goal, the proponents of this ideology consciously denounce religious orthodoxy as the basis for social organisation and, advocate civil values.
The development of secularism as an ideology was partly an outcome of the process of secularisation in Europe. And in many mod of states it has been adopted as a state policy, without really going through a historical process which was in evidence in Europe at the time of the emergence of the phenomenon of secularism.
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