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Clarifications and Terminology
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Religion and Modernity
In this course, Professor Grace Davie (University of Exeter) considers the relationship between religion and modernity. In the first lecture, we clarify the meaning of the term “modernity”. In the second lecture, we look at the trajectories of religion in Europe, noting that modernisation entailed secularisation. In the third lecture, we look at the trajectories of religion in the US, where religion and modernity have been mutually reinforcing. Next, we explore changes to modernity in the late-twentieth century, how they influenced religion, and whether the terms “late modernity” and “post modernity” are useful in characterising them. In the fifth lecture, we interrogate whether there is a universal narrative of religion and modernity through Shmuel Eisenstadt’s notion of “multiple modernities". In the sixth and final lecture, we conclude with Professor Davie’s thoughts on this question.
Clarifications and Terminology
In this lecture, we clarify the meaning of the term “modernity”, focusing in particular on: (i) the distinction between “modernity” as a set of structural transformations in politics, economy and society, and “modernism” as a cultural phenomenon; (ii) the relationship between socio-economic structure and culture, as this is understood by Karl Marx and Max Weber; (iii) the issue of timing in thinking about modernity, in which we consider several options for demarcating the beginning of modernity, and opt for the transformations associated with the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Hello. My name is Grace Davie,
00:00:05and I'm professor emeritus in sociology at the University of Extra.
00:00:08My field is religion, and we're talking now about religion and modernity,
00:00:14and I'm going to start by some clarifications and terminology
00:00:18and questions about timing.
00:00:23I'm thinking, first of the terms, modernity and post modernity,
00:00:28sometimes late modernity
00:00:33and I'm going to assume.
00:00:36And most of the literature
00:00:38follows this pattern. But not all of it,
00:00:40Um, that modernity and post modernity are concerned with economic,
00:00:43social and political transformations there to do with social and economic change.
00:00:48In contrast,
00:00:57modernism
00:00:59and postmodernism or late modernism modernism
00:01:00are more related to cultural
00:01:04and intellectual phenomenon,
00:01:07including religion, of course
00:01:09and religious narratives.
00:01:12But it's more about changing culture and
00:01:15thinking than it is about changing structure
00:01:17and politics.
00:01:20The terminology is tricky is necessarily tricky, really tricky,
00:01:25and I have to confess there are many inconsistencies in the literature,
00:01:29but if we keep that straight in our minds,
00:01:33I think it will be easier to understand
00:01:37elements of the debate don't muddle up structures
00:01:38and cultural thinking.
00:01:43Of course, a question that you have to address immediately is,
00:01:46um is there a causal link between ways of thinking and structural change.
00:01:49In fact, this is a pivotal issue in in sociology
00:01:57because it marks.
00:02:02For example,
00:02:03Karl Marx insists on the economic base on the primacy of the
00:02:03economic structure as the thing that really forms society and social classes
00:02:07and cultural thinking.
00:02:14Max Faber questions is profoundly by introducing the Protestant ethic,
00:02:16the way of thinking and the way of religious
00:02:21theology and teaching having an effect on behaviour,
00:02:24which then has an effect on society.
00:02:27So he goes the other way around that it's not simply black and white, with marks of
00:02:29their interrelationship is very subtle.
00:02:36Never go to the timing question, because what do we mean by modern?
00:02:39Is this post mediaeval?
00:02:44I'll be thinking about the early modern period or what
00:02:46historians call the early modern period in other words,
00:02:49the Renaissance and the Reformation,
00:02:52the relations,
00:02:54the great movement of art and culture that
00:02:55went across Europe in the 15th 16th century,
00:02:57and the Reformation,
00:03:01which was a revolution in the way of in its theological thinking,
00:03:02a real shift in theological thinking but very bound
00:03:07up to in the evolving structures of states,
00:03:11and that kind of thing across Europe
00:03:14that's called the early modern period.
00:03:18Are we thinking about the voyages of Discovery?
00:03:20Um,
00:03:23as Columbus and others go out to the New World
00:03:24from Europe and the whole vision of the world alters,
00:03:28This was a a new way of thinking.
00:03:32Is that what we call modern?
00:03:36And then, in the 18th century,
00:03:39we think about the Enlightenment and the Revolution in thinking, um,
00:03:40and its scientific application that altered
00:03:44the entire way that people were thinking
00:03:48about existence and who and what was at the centre of the universe.
00:03:51Increasingly, this became man centred rather than God centred.
00:03:57Or are we thinking about the industrial Revolution?
00:04:01UH, mostly 19th century,
00:04:05which was a story of economic and technological transformation
00:04:08and often associated with the growth of cities. So industrialisation
00:04:12and urbanisation
00:04:18any one of those?
00:04:20You can make an argument for any one of those being modern,
00:04:21but I'm going to concentrate on the last two.
00:04:24That's the changes of the Enlightenment,
00:04:26its scientific applications and the industrial revolution.
00:04:28That's primarily where this module will situate
00:04:32and what comes after, Of course,
00:04:37
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Davie, G. (2021, October 06). Religion and Modernity - Clarifications and Terminology [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/religion-and-modernity/multiple-modernities
MLA style
Davie, G. "Religion and Modernity – Clarifications and Terminology." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 06 Oct 2021, https://massolit.io/courses/religion-and-modernity/multiple-modernities