“At the Crossroads of the ‘Secular’, the ‘Religious’ and the ‘In-Between’: Opportunities for Christian Witness

Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and IpswichDiocesan Study Days

On“God and the World: Religion and Society”

at the St. Nicholas Centre, Ipswich27th and 28th September 2013

Professor Paul Weller

© Not for direct quotation or reproduction without permission of the presenter

2011 Census Headlines

on Religion or Belief

More Secular?

Less Christian?

and More Multi-Faith?

Religion and the Census: Position Pre-2001

England and Wales 1851 Census of worship

From the inception of Northern Ireland, it had questions

Northern Ireland questions were originally open for write-in

Originally in England, Wales and Scotland ethnic question introduced

2001 saw the introduction of religion questions

Why/why not religion in the Census?

Arguments Against

Religion is a private matter

Respondents will not answer a religion question

Adding questions adds cost to the Census

Arguments For

The re-emergence of religion into public life

The service provision from religious groups within civil society

The EU Amsterdam Treaty and Employment Directive presaged new law

Avoidance of discrimination and inclusive planning required religion data

Religion England

 

Scotland Wales N. Ireland UK Total    UK %

Buddhist 139,046 6,830 5,407 533 151,816 0.3%

Christian 35,251,244 3,294,545 2,087,242 1,446,386 42,079,417 71.6%

Hindu 546,982 5,564 5,439 825 558,810 1.0%

Jewish 257,671 6,448 2,256 365 266,740 0.5%

Muslim 1,524,887 42,557 21,739 1,943 1,591,126 2.7%

Sikh 327,343 6,572 2,015 219 336,149 0.6%

Other Religion 143,811 26,974 6,909 1,143 178,837 0.3%

Total 38,190,984 3,389,490 2,131,007 1,451,414 45,162,895

No religion 7,171,332 1,394,460 537,935 * 9,103,727 15.5%

Not stated 3,776,515 278,061 234,143 * 4,288,719 7.3%

No religion/not stated total 10,947,847 1,672,521 772,078 233,853 13,392,466

Grand Totals 49,138,831 5,062,011 2,903,085 1,685,267 58,789,194 100.00%

Religion and Belief in the UK: 2001 Census Data

“Three Dimensional” Statistics in a “Four-Nations” State

Table 3: Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by percentages of the population of England

Religion England 2001 England 2011 Buddhist 0.3% 0.5%Christian 71.7% 59.4% Hindu 1.1% 1.5%Jewish 0.5% 0.5%Muslim 3.1% 5.0%Sikh 0.7% 0.8%Other Religion 0.3% 0.4%No religion 14.6% 24.7%Not stated 7.7% 7.2%

Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by numbers and proportions of the population of the London Borough of Newham, and ranking by local authority

Religion Numbers in 2001

Numbers in 2011

Percentage in 2001

Percentage in 2011

Ranking in 2011

Buddhist 1,592 2,446 0.7% 0.8% 32

Christian 114,247 123,119 46.8% 40.0% 342

Hindu 16,901 26,962 6.9% 8.8% 7

Jewish 481 342 0.2% 0.1% 153

Muslim 59,293 98,456 24.3% 32.0% 2

Sikh 6,897 6,421 2.8% 2.1% 19

Other Religion 664 1,090 0.3% 0.4% 213

Total all religions 200,075 258,836 82.00% 84.2% -

No religion 21,978 29,373 9.0% 9.5% 348

Not stated 21,838 19,775 9.0% 6.4% 283

No religion/ not stated 43,816 49,148 18.00% 15.9% -

Total 243,891 307,984 100.00%   N = 384

Self-identification by religion in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses by numbers and proportions of the population of Norwich, and ranking by local authority

Religion Numbers in 2001

Numbers in 2011

Percentage in 2001

Percentage in 2011

Ranking in 2011

Buddhist 485 978 0.4 0.7% 35

Christian 73,428 59,515 60.4 44.9% 331

Hindu 348 1,017 0.3 0.8% 113

Jewish 239 241 0.2 0.2% 101

Muslim 887 2,612 0.7 2.0% 116

Sikh 102 168 0.1 0.1% 169

Other Religion 619 886 0.5 0.7% 17

Total all religions 76,108 65,419 62.6 49.4% -

No religion 33,766 56,268 27.8 42.5% 1

Not stated 11,676 10,827 9.6 8.2% 39

No religion/ not stated 45,442 67,095 37.4% 50.7% -

Total 121,550 132,514 100.00%   N = 384

The Demographic “Shape” of Religious Groups in England (2001 Census)

Christian Population of England by Age and Sex

15 10 5 0 5 10 15

0 to 4 5 to 9

10 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 49 50 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 to 69 70 to 74 75 to 79

80+

Percentage

Females

Males

Muslim Population of England by Age and Sex

15 10 5 0 5 10 15

0 to 4 5 to 9

10 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 49 50 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 to 69 70 to 74 75 to 79

80+

Percentage

Females

Males

Hindu Population of England by Age and Sex

15 10 5 0 5 10 15

0 to 4 5 to 9

10 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 49 50 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 to 69 70 to 74 75 to 79

80+

Percentage

Females

Males

Sikh Population of England by Age and Sex

15 10 5 0 5 10 15

0 to 4 5 to 9

10 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 49 50 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 to 69 70 to 74 75 to 79

80+

Percentage

Females

Males

Religion or Belief Question in England and in Wales2001 2011

Religion or Belief Question in Scotland2001 (current religion) 2011

Religion or Belief (brought up) Question in Scotland2001

Religion or Belief Question in Northern Ireland2001 (current religion) 2011

Some difficulties with the Census data

-General Census issues

-Identification not belief or practice

-What about the children

-What about the dual identity

-What about the “spiritual”

Religious Diversity, “Colour-Coding” & “Health Warning”

As the American scholar of religion Diana Eck has put it the map of what she calls our current “georeligious reality” cannot “be color-coded as to its Christian, Muslim, Hindu identity” since,

“It is precisely the interpenetration, proximity and interrelation of ancient civilizations, with both the conflict and transformation inherent in such proximity, that is the hallmark of the late

twentieth century.”

[Eck, D (2000), “Dialogue and Method: Reconstructing the Study of Religion”, in Patten, K. and Ray, B. (eds), A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Postmodern Age, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 131-149. (135)]

Exploring research into the “non-religious”

Sariya Contractor, Tristram Hooley, Nicki Moore, Kingsley Purdam and Paul Weller

“Researching the ‘Non-Religious’: Methods and Methodological Issues, Challenges and Controversies”

in Abby Day, Giselle Vincett and Christopher R. Cotter (eds.), Social Identities Between the Sacred and Secular

AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Series Ashgate, 2013

Who are the “no religion”?

Terminology? Non-Religious, Atheists, Secularists, Humanists?

“It has become something of a cliché to begin social-scientific studies of non-religion, secularity, atheism, and

related topics by bewailing the dearth of previous research”

S. Bullivant and L. Lee (2012) ‘Interdisciplinary Studies of Non-religion and Secularity: The State of the Union’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27 (1):19-27

Religion Derby England % 2001

England % 2011

Wales % 2001

Wales % 2011

England and Wales

% 2001

England and Wales

% 2011 Christian 71.7% 59.4% 71.9% 57.6% 71.7% 59.3% No religion 14.6% 24.7% 18.5% 32.1% 14.8% 25.1%

Kinds of religion

“Believing without belonging” (Grace Davie)

“The ordinary God” (Grace Davie)

“Believing in belonging” (Abby Day)

“Belonging without believing” (Paul Weller)

“Non-Realism” (Don Cupitt)

“Fuzzy fidelity” (David Voas)

“The in-between” or “excluded middle” (Abby Day etc)

What’s in a name?

“Non-religion is anything which is primarily defined by a relationship of difference to religion”

L. Lee (2012), ‘Research Note: Talking about a Revolution: Terminology for the New Field of Non-religion Studies’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27(1) 129-139

What is the default position?

How?: “A journey away from faith”; “coming out as non-religious”, “never knew anything different!”

Diversity: Atheist, Humanist, Secularist, Agnostic, Non-believers, non-religious, etc:

Labels as problematic: “ […] but I have no desire to give myself another label”

Working definitions of ‘non-religious’

Differing and Nuanced Relationships with Religion

“Religion is a set of rules. In every religion you have rules for prayers or the crucifix and you have to belief in God. People who don’t believe in god and don’t have a set of rules are non-religious”

“ … if you imagine a diagram and you've got a circle in the centre and that’s religious and then everything else outside of that is non-religious! Because if you define what’s religious then surely non-religious is everything else”

“A stance that is based on scientific and logical reasoning, a moral stance and the possibility to be spiritual (without being religious)”

Project findings – unfair attitudes

The attitudes Looked down upon Perceived as lesser human beings

“there is this default position that you are supposed to be religious preferably Christian in this country and if you’re not you are in some way a bad person, or a deficient person or a dodgy person in some shape or form”

Implications of such attitudes Occasional difficulties with ‘religious friends’ assumptions about attending religious functions more serious implications

A “Three Dimensional” Socio-Religious Reality

“The contemporary religious landscape of the UK should be seen as exhibiting contours that are ‘Christian, secular and religiously plural’.”

P. Weller (2005),

Time for a Change: Reconfiguring Religion, State and Society,

London: T & T Clark, p. 73

What does “three dimensional” mean?

“Thus, the contemporary socio-religious reality of England and the UK might be described as ‘three dimensional’ in contrast with a more ‘one dimensional’ Christian inheritance or the ‘two dimensional’ religious-secular modifications made to that self-understanding during the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”

P. Weller (2005), Time for a Change: Reconfiguring Religion, State and Society, London: T & T Clark, p. 73)

Over to you!

In relation to at least one of the three (pastoral, prophetic and priestly) dimensions of the Church’s ministry and witness

and:

in the context of thinking about the relationship of the “religious”, the “secular” and the “in-between”

Identify something which the church(es) in which you have leadership responsibilities, either: (a)  are doing (b)  ought/could be doing