2. Theoretical Considerations
2.2 Secularisation, Sacralisation, and Religious Pluralism
It is beyond the scope of this thesis to engage in depth with the prolific debates on secularisation. I touch on it here because of my contention that the Civil War Revival helped to counter the secularising effects of modernity.
Until recently, secularisation theory dominated discussion by social scientists and historians about the relationship between religion and modernity. Woodhead and Heelas identify three sub-theses: disappearance (religion is on course to disappear), differentiation (the relocation of religion from the public to private domain), and deintensification (religion remains, but in a ‘weak’ form).146 Bruce states that ‘there is actually nothing in the secularisation approach that rules out occasional signs of
144 Birgit Meyer, ‘Commodities and the Power of Prayer: Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana’, in Meyer and Geschiere (eds.), Globalization and Identity, 152.
145 James D. Hunter, ‘What is Modernity? Historical Roots and Contemporary Features’, in Philip Sampson, Vinay Samuel, and Chris Sugden (eds.), Faith and Modernity, Oxford: Regnum Books International, 1994, 22-3.
146 Linda Woodhead and Paul Heelas (eds.), Religion in Modern Times, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000, 307-8. For a critique of different uses of the term ‘secularisation’, see Larry Shiner, ‘The Concept of Secularization in Empirical Research’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 6, 1966, 207-20.
revival.’147 Opinions differ over the causes of secularisation. Suggested processes include intellectual changes (associated with the rise of science and reason as dominant epistemological categories), socio-cultural differentiation (related to processes of modernisation), pluralisation (the loss of faith in the face of competition from alternative worldviews), and the ‘consumerisation’ of religion.148
Contemporary global religious resurgence has prompted some scholars to challenge the secularisation thesis.149 So-called sacralisation theory focuses attention on religion gaining in strength in modern times. For example, Berger, an early advocate of secularisation theory, now believes that while modernisation has had some secularising effects, it has also triggered ‘powerful movements of counter-secularisation,’
particularly in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.150 Woodhead and Heelas identify three sub-theses on sacralisation, corresponding to the three sub-theses of secularisation: growth (by way of conversion), dedifferentiation (or deprivatisation), and intensification, where people with a ‘weak’, nominal religious affiliation come to adopt ‘stronger,’ more potent forms of religiosity.151 This present study concurs with Woodhead and Heelas’s assertion that both trends, secularisation and sacralisation, are operative in the modern world. While secularisation occurs in particular circumstances,
147 Steve Bruce, God is Dead. Secularization in the West, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002, 173.
148 Woodhead, and Heelas (eds.), Religion in Modern Times, 308; Hugh McLeod, Secularization in Western Europe 1848-1914, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000, 6-9; Steve Bruce, A House Divided:
Protestantism, Schism and Secularization, London: Routledge, 1990, 29.
149 See for example, José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994; Peter L. Berger, ‘The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview, in Peter L. Berger (ed.), The Desecularization of the World. Essays on the Resurgence of Religion in World Politics, Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Center; Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 1999, 1-18; Grace Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002.
150 Berger, ‘Desecularization of the World’, 3, 8.
151 Woodhead and Heelas (eds.), Religion in Modern Times, 429.
in other contexts ‘religions retain their vitality, even grow.’152 In my analysis of the revival and its Pentecostal progeny, I distinguish between numerical growth/decline, the movement’s public role, and the intensity of religious commitments.
A central issue of contemporary sociological debate is the precise relationship between religious pluralism (a symptom of modernity) and religious vitality. Secularisation theorists contend that in pluralist environments, religion ‘becomes increasingly a question of options, life-styles and preferences, to the point that it loses much of its raison d’etre.’153 The recent application of an economic market model to the study of religion, the so-called rational choice theory, has challenged this view.154 It proceeds on the assumption that religious demand in societies remains constant, and that competitive pluralism increases religious vitality and participation. Such a theory assumes the possibility of choice, and argues that religion flourishes especially in unregulated contexts, such as North America. In this competitive environment, religious providers necessarily adapt their products to suit consumers.155
152 Ibid., 2, 308.
153 Davie, Europe, 15-6.
154 This theory is associated with sociologists Rodney Stark, William Bainbridge, Roger Finke, and the economist Larry Iannaccone. See for example, Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Church of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992; Rodney Stark and Laurence R. Iannacone, ‘A Supply-side Reinterpretation of the Secularization of Europe’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 1994, 230-52. It has been taken up in a less extreme form by social historians. See for example, Jeffrey Cox, English Churches in a Secular Society: Lambeth 1870-1930, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982; Hempton, Religion of the People, 178. For a summary, see McLeod, Secularization, 9.
155 Laurence R. Iannaccone, ‘Voodoo Economics? Reviewing the Rational Choice Approach to Religion’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34.1, 1995, 77.
While I disagree with rational choice theorists over their tendency to shape the world to fit the explanation, and the contention that religious demand remains constant,156 the economic market model is a helpful analytical tool for interpreting current religious trends in Nigeria, where freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed, and people tend to discard impotent religious forms in favour of more efficacious ones.157 Its value lies in its presentation of churches as competing firms in a free marketplace, and its focus on suppliers and consumers of religious commodities. As noted, the Civil War Revival’s success depended largely upon the maintenance of a balance between supply and demand. Socio-economic and political pressures created demands for alternative religious producers able to respond more efficiently to changing consumer requirements. The revival’s missionary impulse provided competition for the mission churches, and broke their monopoly in a way that earlier initiatives failed to do. Since the 1970s, neo-Pentecostal expansion and fragmentation has ensured an increasing level of religious plurality. Neo-Pentecostals have also adapted their message to attract prospective customers. This thesis will explore the consequences of both these developments.