Believing vaguely: Religious socialization and Christian beliefs in Britain

Hunt, Stephen

Abstract

Sociological research focusing on religion has customarily placed processes of socialization at the core of understanding not only individual religious identification, but also the broad aggregate transmission and survival of a generalised religious culture. In recent years scholars have begun to speak of the “crisis” manifest in religious socialization from one generation to the next, at least in the Western setting. This paper will largely centre upon a single “dimension” of the erosion of religious socialization namely Christian “beliefs” (broadly defined) in one national context, Britain. It will then consider the weakening impact of conventional agencies of such socialization, most obviously the Christian churches, and call upon empirical generational and long-term evidence, alongside engaging current theorising around the subject of “believing” in a post-Christian environment, if indeed the designation is an accurate one.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2015
• Journal: Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
• Print ISSN: 2035-4983
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 10-46
• Keywords: Christianity, post-Christian society, socialisation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/804872
• Publisher URL: http://ijse.padovauniversitypress.it/system/files/papers/2015_3_2.pdf