Marbury Education

 

A2 Sociology

 

Unit 3 Beliefs in Society

 

Modernity and Religion

 

Modernity

One can’t say with any degree of certainty when the pre-modern era ended and the modern one came about. However, most say that Modernity is associated with the 18^th century enlightenment. During the enlightenment, many western societies latched onto the idea that science could explain nature and that this form of thinking could be used to make social life better and more prosperous. So during modernity, something that lasted up until the 1950’s, there was a clear belief that truth existed, we were governed by structures, progress was inevitable and that science was the panacea for all social and economic problems. Modernity created a sense of certainty and although war was an unsettling and destructive force that occurred too often, at the level of the individual, there was a high degree of predictability about ones’ personal journey through life. For example, social class membership was strong and these classes were homogenous and obvious to all. We knew what was expected of us in terms of social roles like provider, homemaker or employee and these roles guided our behaviour so that the degree of agency or autonomy we had was limited in many ways. We were quite deferential, we often accepted the legitimacy or validity of what we were told by those in authority and this gave us a sense of stability and perhaps even a form of comfort. Although Durkheim described the industrial era associated with modernity as a time when norms and values were less clear and as such the social cement was more vulnerable to fracture with consequent instability and anomie, in many ways it was also a time of absolute values. There was a clear sense of right and wrong, good and bad. This is something that many people, especially those on the political and sociological right, look back on with admiration or nostalgia.

Modernity is synonymous with the Classical theory of Marx, Durkheim and Comte and they were all champions of positivist methodology as they sought to establish Sociology as a subject with the same high status as natural science. Although keen on the use of statistics and other so called objective approaches to research, they were equally keen on using such methods to support their ideological and political viewpoints. Perhaps that’s why Weber argued that sociology can be value free, as long as a distinction is made between the what is, and the what should be.

 

So how does Modernity relate to Religion?

 

As Modernity was synonymous with structure, religion tended to be monotheistic and monopolistic. There was one God in which we believed and the Church monopolised religious knowledge and authority. So we didn’t have a great deal of choice over religious or spiritual affairs, we were largely deferential to religious authority. In fact, our religious affiliation was mostly the product of our socialisation. We were born into a particular faith and we learnt to accept it as true through our primary and secondary socialisation. Agency and self determination were limited and this helped to give power to the large religious organisations like the Catholic Church or the Church of England. Furthermore, by conforming to the principles and practices of our particular faith, we were to be afforded a place in heaven. So religion was very much about a type of faith that was external in nature. There was a God, an all powerful creator and we just had to worship him in the ways that were directed by the clergy. In short, modernity was synonymous was an ontological view that saw man as passive and society and its institutions as strong. However, along with these trends one might argue that a contrary force was at work, namely the rise of science, rationality and logic. Many viewed religion and science as mutually exclusive and offered this an explanation for secularisation. However, is has been clear that throughout the modern era man has felt able to base his understanding on scientific knowledge and religion faith. Yet as modernity drew to a close, in the words of Grace Davie we increasingly became believers without belonging as individuals and states sought to disengage from the church.