{"id":6303,"date":"2017-03-20T08:02:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6303"},"modified":"2017-03-20T08:02:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:02:49","slug":"complacency-stupid-new-pet-theory-secularism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/03\/complacency-stupid-new-pet-theory-secularism.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s the complacency, stupid! My new pet theory on secularism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/baptism-christianity-jordan-river-1959655\/\"<\/p>\n

Sure, there\u2019s probably tons written about this in the academic literature, but remember, I\u2019m just an actuary, who blogs as a way of thinking about issues that are interesting to me, rather than with (most of the time) a specific agenda to promote.<\/p>\n

Something that\u2019s always seemed \u201coff\u201d to me is the explanation that secularism is the inevitable result of the prosperity of our current times, so that religious observance will inevitably, absent a catastrophe that sends us back into collective poverty, disappear in the United States just as it (nearly) has in Europe. \u00a0I wrote about this a couple years ago<\/a>:<\/p>\n

But the funny thing is, taken on an individual basis, Christianity is not, and has not, necessarily been a religion of the poor. The first Christians tended to be not the poor, but the wealthy (or at least middle-class) and educated, looking for something that was more meaningful and made more sense to them than the worship of the gods of their fathers and mothers. A favorite sort of conversion story was that of the wealthy man or woman rejecting wealth, and Francis of Assisi was the son of a merchant. In fact, the story around St. Francis goes like this: the economic growth of the High Middle Ages produced this new breed of voluntarily poor Brothers and Sisters such as the Franciscans and the Poor Clares, as a way of responding to their un-ease about the new money economy. At least, that\u2019s what I remember from a book from my Medieval history grad student days.<\/p>\n

And now? I\u2019m still reading Robert Putnam\u2019s Our Kids, and just saw a chart saying something I\u2019d seen before, that, in the United States, it\u2019s the poor who are \u201closing their religion\u201d and there\u2019s a sharp divergence, as the middle-class and better educated are not only doing a better job keeping their families intact, but are keeping up church attendance in a way that the less-educated and poorer class aren\u2019t. I have the impression, too, that in China the rise of Christianity is a middle-class phenomenon, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was mulling over this again more recently, and asking myself the question, \u201cwhy is it that new-found wealth seems to be bringing more people to religious observance but in the U.S. the conventional wisdom says the reverse is true?\u201d \u00a0But is it really more simple than that? \u2014 is it the case that transitions<\/em> of various kinds bring about religious observance? \u00a0In China, there is a definite economic transition that\u2019s leading people \u2014 not everyone, but a significant number \u2014 to search out some sort of larger \u201cmeaning of life.\u201d \u00a0In the United States, well, in some ways, you might say that\u00a0people are seeking out different ways of finding that \u201cmeaning of life,\u201d whether it\u2019s new age practices or pursuing a cause such as environmentalism. \u00a0But I\u2019m not so sure that\u2019s the answer.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a book out now, The Complacent Class<\/em>, by Tyler Cowen, the blurb for which on Amazon<\/a> states,<\/p>\n

Since Alexis de Tocqueville, restlessness has been accepted as a signature American trait. Our willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change have produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation from Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

The problem, according to legendary blogger, economist and best selling author Tyler Cowen, is that Americans today have broken from this tradition\u2015we\u2019re working harder than ever to avoid change. We\u2019re moving residences less, marrying people more like ourselves and choosing our music and our mates based on algorithms that wall us off from anything that might be too new or too different. Match.com matches us in love. Spotify and Pandora match us in music. Facebook matches us to just about everything else.<\/p>\n

Of course, this \u201cmatching culture\u201d brings tremendous positives: music we like, partners who make us happy, neighbors who want the same things. We\u2019re more comfortable. But, according to Cowen, there are significant collateral downsides attending this comfort, among them heightened inequality and segregation and decreased incentives to innovate and create.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So here\u2019s a theory to test:<\/p>\n

Traditional societies, that is, those with a strong in-group pressure to maintain cultural practices = continuity of whatever religious practices\u00a0already exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplacent\u201d modern societies\u00a0=> decline in religious practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cDynamic\u201d modern societies => growth in religious practice.<\/p>\n

Why would \u201cdynamic\u201d societies produce more religiosity? \u00a0Because it is in time of social and political change that people are looking for some sense of meaning, a greater purpose, and also because of the concrete benefits of mutual aid and support for people uprooted from traditional communities.<\/p>\n

After all, why should it be that the United States was historically more religiously observant than Europe, when subsequent to the initial immigration by Puritans, the new arrivals were no longer distinguished by any particular levels of religiosity? \u00a0In fact, the level of religious observance in the U.S. also waxed and waned, with various \u201cGreat Awakenings\u201d throughout its history. \u00a0Are there correlated with periods of change?`<\/p>\n

And what about the ancient Roman world? \u00a0Bear in mind, in addition to my statement in my prior post that the first Christians were not necessarily the poor but the wealthy, the context was not simply one of pagans converting to Christianity, the end, but instead, Christianity fell on fertile soil as there was already an interest in something other than the traditional gods, and by this I don\u2019t simply mean the mystical cults of which Christianity is sometimes accused of having started out as. \u00a0In fact, previously Judaism had its own converts, or, rather, the ancient Roman version of \u201cseekers\u201d who were not interested in \u201cbecoming Jewish\u201d with its circumcision and ritual practices, but were attracted by its monotheism and ethics, and subsequently those people found that Christianity gave them what they were looking for while being fully welcomed into the community. \u00a0(Or something like that \u2014 I don\u2019t recall the particulars, but do recall having read that Jews and Christians initially viewed themselves as rivals for converts from paganism.)<\/p>\n

And, again going purely on memory, when we think of the Roman Empire, we think of bread-and-circuses and brutal emperors, and the Fall of the Roman Empire with its barbarian hordes, but Christianity grew prior to that, at the time of the Pax Romana, which I would think would have been a very dynamic time.<\/p>\n

Now, what about the notion that it is poverty and catastrophe which brings about religious observance, as everyone flocks to the temple to pray for a cure\/rain\/success in battle\/etc., or simply to seek out comfort? \u00a0Is this based on evidence, or just an assumption? \u00a0Here\u2019s an example: \u00a0the Holocaust. \u00a0It\u2019s my understanding that there were those who turned towards\u00a0prayer, but there was a large segment of Jews who \u201clost their religion\u201d as well. \u00a0As a present-day example, I don\u2019t see any reports of a resurgence in religion in those regions of the country hit hard by the opioid epidemic, neither among addicts nor those who suffer because of the addictions of others.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019d be interesting to explore more deeply the particular circumstances in which religious revivals occur \u2014 because when I say \u201cdynamism\u201d I\u2019m not entirely sure myself what I mean by this but it seems like at least a tool to thinking about this more than the simplistic \u201cEuropean countries are more secular because they\u2019re taken care of by their social welfare programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers, your thoughts please. \u00a0(And, no, mocking comments about the foolishness of believing in a deity don\u2019t really further the conversation.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/baptism-christianity-jordan-river-1959655\/; public domain<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sure, there\u2019s probably tons written about this in the academic literature, but remember, I\u2019m just an actuary, who blogs as a way of thinking about issues that are interesting to me, rather than with (most of the time) a specific agenda to promote. Something that\u2019s always seemed \u201coff\u201d to me is the explanation that secularism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[591,91],"class_list":["post-6303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-religious-revival","tag-secularism"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's the complacency, stupid! 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