Secularization in Europe

Last weekend, I attended an Anglican church with my Religion and Violence class. It was an old church in northern London built in the 1100s. The church was beautiful and still in great shape! Two weekends ago, I attended a Catholic mass in Kensington. The orders of the two services were extremely similar, as Church of England was born out of Catholicism. The churches, however, were strikingly different, which brought up many questions for me to ask.


The congregation at the Catholic Church was mostly of Filipino descent. It was a holy day in the Philippines, so the homily was geared towards their customs. The priest remarked how dedicated the Filipinos were to their faith along with how active they were in the church.


The congregation at the Anglican Church was mostly English. There was a baptism during that mass, making me convinced that I am destined to only attend the longer services! The main difference I noticed however was not the changes to the mass itself, but rather the congregation. Looking at numbers alone, the Catholic Church was completely packed, while the tiny Anglican Church was only partially full. Additionally, while the Catholic Filipinos performed the different parts of the mass like clockwork, the Anglicans fumbled greatly with the service. Half of the congregation stood while the rest stayed seated, looking very confused, and kneeling never even happened. This major difference in the two churches made me question greatly the dedication that different cultures have towards religion. As I only went to one service at each church, my judgments may not, however, be completely accurate.


During our first British Life and Culture lecture, Dr. Wendy Stokes explained that Western Europe has become increasingly secular. According to Stokes, Sunday is for shopping. While the majority of British will check Church of England on their census card, a very small majority attend a religious service on a regular basis. The United Kingdom has the lowest percentage of citizens attend religious services on a regular basis for an industrialized country while the United States has the highest.


In my Religion and Violence class, we have been reading various articles on the secularization of societies. Many experts believed that religion would become obsolete as countries modernized, yet research shows that the opposite has occurred, with the exception being Western Europe. While religion provides many with a sense of stability and identity, in Western Europe religion is drilled into one at birth and is simply taken for granted. This is different in the United States and other countries where there is not a national religion.


Over the past three decades, Western Europe has become increasingly secular, making one question which aspect of the European society made this change occur. In various articles that I read, multiple reasons were listed as the catalysts for this shift. According to Austin Cline in his article Religion in Europe, the wars and tumultuous governments of the 20th century played a decisive role. “Disillusionment over established political institutions has translated into disillusionment over religious institutions as well.” If one cannot rely upon governments that are supposed to be working for the good of the country, trust in all aspects of life is often lost. An additional cause that was cited in numerous articles was the increase in political stability that occurred in the second half of the 20th century. According to Ronald Inglehard in the article Christianity Recedes in Europe – Is America Next?, religion provides one with stability, a sense of certainty, because its core beliefs never change. "For most of history, people have been on the borderline of survival," he explains. "That's changed dramatically. Survival is certain for almost everyone (in the West). So one of the reasons people are drawn to religion has eroded."


The reasons for the secularization of Europe will vary depending upon each person’s individual case, but one cannot ignore the trend that Europe’s culture is shifting towards.