Religion
Related: About this forumMind, body and spirit: it's the de-reformation of religion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/may/07/mind-body-spirit-dereformation-religion?newsfeed=trueChurch attendance my be declining, but real individual religion has undergone a huge revival in the past 30 years
Linda Woodhead
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 May 2012 09.49 EDT
Look for the religion section of almost any bookshop in Britain, and you'll find it's been subsumed under "Mind, body and spirit". The reason is simple: what we call religion has changed dramatically in just the past 30 years.
I think the change is so significant we can call it a "de-reformation" of religion. In other words, the main features that have characterised religion in Britain since the Reformation of the 16th century have given way. For most people, religion has ceased to be a matter of belonging to a clerically led community, affirming unchanging dogma, participating in prescribed rituals, and holding conservative social attitudes. It's transformed into something else.
Let's start with rituals, both national and personal. From the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 onwards, the church has gradually ceded control. It still has a role to play, but by the time of Diana's death in 1997, that role had become secondary to popular practices and innovations. Similarly, the churches' hold over birth, marriage, and death has weakened dramatically.
Religious belonging has transformed as well. It used to be about local and national belonging. Now it's a matter of association with like-minded people by way of real and virtual networks that transcend local and national boundaries. A British Muslim, for example, may associate face-to-face with a few like-minded friends, spend a lot of time reading and chatting on the web, feel part of a global ummah, and long to go on hajj. And you can say something similar for young Catholics, evangelicals, neo-pagans and others.
more at link
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)Does anyone else think it's a bit ironic or insensitive that the Diana memorial fountain looks like a racetrack?
polichick
(37,152 posts)"Turn it on its head and you see it the right way round: real religion which is to say everyday, lived religion is thriving and evolving, while hierarchical, institutionalised, dogmatic forms of religion are marginalised."
Makes me feel more hopeful.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)where people of similar beliefs but not similar doctrine are going to gather.
I also like his conclusion:
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)fundy bullshit, rightwing fascist hate screed and unsupervised and unaccountable fundraising from the duped attendees? Those churches?
yeah we need more of that.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)They are moving away from the 'denominational' i.e. traditional organized hierarchical protestant and catholic churches, but many of the 'non-denominational' churches that are growing are exactly as I described them. It is a mixed blessing, pun intended.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)The UU churches are growing, as are non-denominational evangelical churches which are nothing like the mega-churches.
Granted, this provides an opportunity for snake oil salesmen and women to move in, but the from I have read, many people are firmly rejecting that in favor of something else. What that is, is not yet clear.