Do We Need Religion? On The Secularisation of Society
- Jane Orton
- Apr 7
- 8 min read
In a previous post, Dr. Orton explored the academic debate about how we define religion. These days, we hear a lot about the growing number of people who profess to have no religion and the decline in religious influence on society. Can this be right? Or is religion making a comeback? Dr. Orton investigates.
For A Level Philosophy and Religious Studies students, this is an overview of one of the most important topics you will need for your exams. For university-level scholars or independent researchers, we’ve included clickable links to useful literature, primary sources and canonical scholarship you need to be acquainted with to get started.
It was once common in academic circles to claim that religion was on the decline and society was secularising. As Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah put it, “By the late 1960s, everyone (a term we do not use lightly) believed that the widespread aspiration for political secularism…was rapidly becoming reality in virtually all parts of the world…Secularization, it seemed, was not so much a speculative academic theory as an immanent global reality.”
Now, however, scholars of global politics are re-evaluating this idea. As Daniel Philpott also says, “Some claim it is waxing, others waning; some see it as sanguine, others as sanguinary. What is undeniable - and perhaps evidence for the waxing thesis - is that talk about religion has risen.”
What is Secularisation?
In the mid-nineteenth century, Auguste Comte argued that religion would give way to secular positivism (scientific reasoning that takes over from religion). This is sometimes called the secularisation thesis and some studies do show a general decline in religious belief and practice. In Britain, one study found that only a third of people consider themselves to be religious.
However, these trends have been challenged. The decline in Christianity in the US seems to be levelling off. Most Western European adults surveyed still consider themselves Christians, even if they seldom go to church and among these people, Christian identity remains a meaningful marker.
Both Europe and America are described secular societies, so secularisation cannot just mean decline in religious belief. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that religion has been relegated to the private sphere of morality, excluded from public life. Another argument is that there has been a disintegration of an over-arching religious world-view, leaving room for more individual spirituality.
Steven Pinker identifies a post-Enlightenment mindset, in which religion is seen as a lifestyle choice and tolerance is practised concerning these choices. Secularisation can be seen as a kind of religious pluralism in this way.
Secularisation in Europe
The fragmentation of the Christian world-view occurred with the Protestant Reformation, a challenge to the traditional Catholic interpretation of Christianity. In 1520, Martin Luther challenged the view that it was only possible to receive salvation by following the teachings of the Church and its priests. According to Luther, salvation comes not through the Church but through a personal relationship with God.
The authority of the Catholic Church was further undermined when Henry VIII broke away from Rome and appointed himself head of the new Church of England in the 1530s. Pope Paul III’s Catholic Counter-Reformation tried to compete with these ideas, but Protestant ideas were spread through the new printing press and wider literacy rates.
These developments led to the Bible being translated into vernacular language rather than Latin, because the idea was to read the Bible to gain a personal understanding of God. In this way, the Reformation led to a more individualised idea of Christianity.
Protestantism is also prone to divisions, each of which interpret religion differently. In England, Charles I imposed restrictions on dissenting Churches, which was one of the factors that led to the English Civil War (1642-51). The civil war was led by Puritans and involved the execution of King Charles I (1649). After the monarchy was restored, Charles II’s Act of Uniformity (1662) tried to strengthen the authority of the Anglican Church.
In Holland, the Calvinist Church enjoyed legal privileges and was the state Church, but religious minorities were allowed to practice their religions. John Locke, who had had to leave England due to persecution of Puritans under Charles II, lived in Holland and was impressed by their policy of toleration.
The Separation of Church and State
Locke claimed that religion is a matter of individual conscience, so governments should not impose religion. His ideas were influential in the history of Western liberalism. In 1689, Parliament passed the Act of Toleration, allowing Protestant dissenters greater freedoms.
Meanwhile, seventeenth century Puritans escaping religious persecution in Europe had immigrated to America. America won Independence in 1776 and the new states debated whether there should be an official religion. They decided that there should be no established (state) religion, because this would lead to conflict.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the American Constitution, argued for the “separation of church and state.” The US Constitution (1787) does not refer to God and the First Amendment (1791) states that no government should create a state church and that no one should be excluded from public office due to their religion.
This does not mean that God was excluded from the process. The Declaration of Independence sets out the idea of unalienable rights given by God: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase, the “wall of separation between church and state” in his Letter to the Danbury Baptists cannot even be taken to mean that religion should be excluded from politics completely. As president, Jefferson signed bills which appropriated financial support for chaplains in Congress and the military, attended church services held on the floor of the House of Representatives and urged soldiers to attend divine services.
In France, secularism was more radical, a reaction against the powerful Catholic Church. La Laïcité was developed to subordinate the Church in order to establish a secular, republican political culture.
According to this approach, the Church should have no role in politics or public life and lost control over education, health and social welfare. According to France’s 2004 law en application du principe de laïcité, le port de signes ou de tenues manifestant une appartenance religieuse dans les écoles, collèges et lycées publics, religious symbols are prohibited in public offices, schools and hospitals, which has caused problems for Muslims wishing to wear the headscarf in today’s France.
French laicism provided model for other states such as Belgium, Switzerland and the Republic of Turkey. Religion in the Soviet Union and Communist China was also limited by the state.
The Re-emergence of Religion
By the mid-twentieth century, the decline of religion seemed inevitable, as the state expanded and countries adopted secularisation. Globalisation (the increasing interconnectedness of global society) and migration have contributed to the rise of multi-faith societies. This has made it difficult to preserve distinct religious beliefs. In this context, inter-faith dialogue (cooperation and exchange between people of different religious faiths) has been important, although how exactly this should be done has led to some challenging questions.
However, Islam remains the dominant religion in much of the Muslim world and Christianity prevails in parts of Africa or Latin America. Evangelical Protestantism has also spread rapidly, possibly due to the rise in urbanisation across the world. Cultural geographer Justin Wilford looks at how Protestant Churches have grown in response to urbanisation and globalisation.
By some estimates, China has 115 million Protestants in spite of the fact that Communist Party suppressed Christianity due to its perceived link with imperialism. This led to the emergence of ‘house churches’ to circumnavigate excessive state regulation.
Some of this religious revival has an explicitly political dimension. There has also been a rise in Hindu nationalism in India, a country which has its own concept of secularism.
Buddhist nationalism has risen in Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar), although in the latter case, there is a strong ethnonationalist dimension. Scholars also point out the difficulties of generalisation here: while there are symmetries, there are also site-specific factors in Sri Lanka and Myanmar that need to be considered.
At the same time, Buddhism has frequently been presented as a secular philosophy. For instance, Stephen Batchelor applies a secular approach to the Pali Canon, although David Brazier contends that Buddhism is a religion: its “foundation is faith” and “It has beliefs, rituals, altars, offerings, bells, candles, metaphysics, clergy, devotees, prayers, meditation, visions, visitations, celestial beings, other worlds, other lives, moral law, and salvation.”
Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama stepped down as head of state in 2011 and since then has encouraged the development of a secular democratic government for the Tibetan government-in- exile.
The Global Supermarket
The same globalisation and migration that seemed to disperse religion has led to an interesting phenomenon known as religious consumerism, or ‘pick and mix’ religion. Because religion is no longer embedded in secular societies, the individual is free to embrace aspects of one religion and reject others, combining those things they do like with insights and practices from other religions.
Critics have pointed out that this can turn people into ‘spiritual shoppers’. People have begun to ‘shop around’ for a religion that fits them, rather than treating religion as a coherent doctrine, or part of their own cultural heritage. Some studies have shown that spirituality, rather than religion, is growing in America.
Others point out that it can be confusing to encourage conversions before people have fully explored the depth of their own religion – or the religion of the community into which they were born. The Dalai Lama argues that, “There are many different religions and cultures in the world and each has developed to suit its own people.”
Do People Need Religion?
Some scholars have predicted that secularism cannot survive. Professor of English Literature Terry Eagleton argues that secularism is ‘largely doomed’ because it cannot replace religion. In his Culture and the Death of God, Eagleton argues that religion cannot be replaced by aesthetic values (or other community-centred phenomena, including sport!). Eagleton sees privatisation as a negative aspect of secular capitalism because it considers morality and religion to be private and irrelevant in the public sphere.
Charles Taylor argued that we tell ourselves “subtraction stories” to demonstrate the truth of secularisation These stories allege that we have liberated ourselves by rejecting earlier superstitious beliefs as science shows them to be unreasonable. Taylor says that the result is actually misaligned with most historical narratives, overemphasising the individual and undermining community.
My own fieldwork has taken me to the Himalayas to research Tibetan Buddhism and to the Sundarbans mangrove forest of Bangladesh to learn about Muslim, Hindu and Munda communities. Here and at home, people have told me of the importance of religion to their communities – albeit for very different reasons. My sense is that religion will remain pertinent in public life for many years to come.
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