In order to understand aspects of modern religion that are prevalent today it is important to take a brief look at religion in pre-modern society. Karl Marx viewed humans as being naturally good who are corrupted by living in a capitalist society. The onset of modernity is closely associated with the Industrial Revolution which transformed society and its value systems. In an industrial society religion slowly began to lose its influence on people the way it had in traditional society. There was a replacement of intuition, speculation, and faith with science and fact. Religious beliefs were slowly losing their grip on the people especially when it involved issues to do with business and public policies. Religious differences among Catholics and Protestant began to decline since reason was used as the basis for making decisions. In modernity, there was only faith in development and progress where factories replaced churches (Griffin). Humankind now depended on universal knowledge to catapult it to development as opposed to religious faith which was considered as not being progressive.
However, before the Industrial Revolution, order was considered to be under the control of God. But with the advent of modernity individuals began making their own decisions in civil matters. The society was now not driven by what it had achieved in the past but what it could achieve in future. Engels and Marx viewed religion in a negative light, in their ideas about modernity. They argued that the means of production, which was under the control of the upper class, kept the working class in poverty by keeping all the profit. They proposed a solution where the working class will organize a revolution to change the structure of society which will bring in a new model of redistributing wealth equally to all (Berger, 2014).
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Marx and Engels further argue that in modernity, religion is used as a tool of legitimization and oppression used by the upper class to contain the working class from attaining a class consciousness that is required for a revolution. They reasoned that religion was used to make the oppressed working class to seek for a more appealing afterlife. Christianity promises the working class of a happy life in paradise and eternal bliss when one dies. It gives them hope to look forward trop a happier life than their current state. The proclamation by the Christian faith about the apocalypse was enough to restrain them from a revolution since the world was going to end anyway. Finally, religion was used to justify the status of an individual in life proclaiming that it is only God who determines someone’s status in life and there is nothing anybody can do about it. All these religious beliefs and proclamations prevents the lower class from organizing a revolution that will effect social change (Griffin).
Religious Inclusion and Rationalization
An analysis of the origins of Christianity uncovered the fact that, in modernity, there were similarities between the first Christians and the working class. A glimpse of pre-modern religion reveals that there existed a dualism between the working class and the elite. In this period, much focus was laid on sacred texts, scriptualism, and the correct understanding of the theological doctrines. There was also a close connection between religious and communal traditions. In many cases, Christian religious beliefs existed side by side with pagan and magical practices. However, modernization there was a separation of the two because some aspects of official doctrines spread downwards. For example in the pre-modern Europe, there existed a hybrid situation where non-Christian rituals and dogmas co-existed with those from the Christian community (Mouzelis, 2012).
However, the beliefs and practices of non-Christians were later marginalized and replaced with church organizations which penetrated the rural areas in Europe and exercised their authority on laity and the local clergy. This led to a homogenization of religion in society. It, however, did not lead to a reduction in inequalities but the opposite. Nonetheless, some non-institutionalized religious forms reappeared and took a global dimension thus weakening the rationalization process. The downward spread of the elite elements of official religion brought about religious rationalization. However, secularism in the pre-modern era was limited to a clique of the educated class and philosophers. But with the emergence of modernity secularism is spreading fast among individuals in all social classes. There was a top-down differentiation in modern religion which reached the lower echelons of society (Martin, 2011).
The rapid differentiation of institutional spheres displayed their own technological development, logic, and historical trajectories. However, this phenomenon was also experienced in complex pre-industrial social formations as in the case of empires which show a considerable amount of differentiation. Marx and others reasoned that in such complex societies the phenomenon was limited to the top. The differentiated parts of the center overlapped with the non-differentiated organized parts of the periphery. The extent to which the centralized economic, social, and political apparatus in society was organized became weak and uneven. In contrast, the differentiation took a top-down character in modern religion. The differentiation reached the lower echelons of society (Mouzelis, 2012).
Top-Down Differentiation and Secularization
The growth of differentiation meant that influence of religion declined in institutional spheres in the areas of professions, sports, education, and arts, among others. There was a gradual occurrence of interinstitutional secularization which had neither a non-directional nor linear character. The integrative role was thus weakened that introduced the involvement of the church in the public and political sphere. This phenomenon can be described as a process of dedifferentiation. The situation could be seen by the involvement of theological figures in politics as was the case of Catholic priests in Latin American nations. Moreover, there was the growth of the Evangelical right movement in America which serves as an example of dedifferentiation in the political and religious spheres. However, churches lost the direct control of institutional spheres, a matter that became irreversible.
In this case, secularization is to be considered as a long-term process which was not the case in religious spheres where it was much weaker. The vitality and strengths of different denominations in America, the rise of new religious movements, and the penetration of religious informal groups were loosely connected to the established churches which also encompassed the dynamism of Pentecostalism in the developed and developing countries. These were indications that intra-institutional secularization was weakening. It, therefore, demonstrates that intra-institutional secularity was not part and parcel of modernity. However, modern social structures incorporate both non-secularity and secularity. This means that industrialization led to secularization in the religious world. But this was not necessarily the case in many instances. Atheism became ineffective in the face of a scientific and technological progress of a modern society. Many scholars who attempt to defend the secularization thesis use the term “religious liberalization” to refer to secularization. Secularity was the result of a fragmented church especially in the medieval era. The same is applicable about Reformation and the religious revivals of the 1970s which were dominant during this period. The religious revivals of the seventies were hostile to organizational authority by mainly focusing on individual choice which led to further secularization (Martin, 2011).
The New Spiritualties of Individualization
There was also another new sociostructural development in religion which brought about individualization which expanded the non-institutional space of new religious movements and informal groups as well as religious networks. It led to the increase in the number of individual seekers who sought to chart their own religious paths. The trend is made possible by the emergence of a global spiritual system which offers a variety of spiritual solutions that are sought by individuals. This main intention for individualization was that most individuals sought spiritual nourishment either for internal or for therapeutic purposes. Even though religiosity has not been replaced by non-church spirituality, the growth of cult, holistic, or progressive spirituality is rapid. There is also a rise in Pentecostalism which is a growing global religious force and features widespread individualization. It is characterized by its display of a protestant ethic which encourages expressivity. In Third World countries, Pentecostalism encourages the ethics of hard work, individual economic success, and strict moral standards (Mouzelis, 2012).
In conclusion, modern religion features three socio-structural occurrences which allows for both secular and non-secular coexistence. In this light, it is to be assumed that the relation between the two will be influenced in future by a number of conjunctional and structural developments such as ecological crises, Islamic fundamentalism, scientific discoveries, and economic crises. However, it is still difficult to project the future of religion given the different points of views with regards to secularization and de-secularization. It is therefore, to be assumed that choice will be the most important element of determine the future of religion. This is after coming from the elimination of segmental localism to the massive inclusion to the center to differentiation and finally to individualization. In matters of religion the privilege to make a choice is not the sole preserve of the elite but one which can be practiced by all. Unlike in pre-modernity, religious thought is no longer the preserve of philosophers, academicians and the elite. Every individual has a right to make a choice between a secular or no-secular type of orientation by checking on the pros and cons of both worlds. Moreover, religious affiliations are taken seriously because it is a natter that is of concern to every individual. Therefore, the modern religion features aspects of generalized, choices, which can be real or imagined, as a basis for existence.
References
Berger, P. (2014). Religion and World Construction . New York: Routledge.
Griffin, J. Social Theorists on Religion: Religion in a Contemporary Society . University
Massachusetts Boston
Mouzelis, N. (2012). Modernity: Religious Trends. Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Acta
17, Retrieved from: http://www.pass.va/content/dam/scienzesociali/pdf/acta17/acta17-mouzelis.pdf
Martin, D. (2011). The Future of Christianity: Reflections on Violence and Democracy, Religion
and Secularization . Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate
