4.2.5.5 Religion, secularisation and the spread of religions Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. What is meant by 'desecularisation' in Peter Berger's later argument?

   • The resurgence of religion in many parts of the world, showing that modernity does not always lead to a decline in religious belief
   • The gradual merging of all world religions into a single faith with no distinct doctrines or organisations remaining
   • The transfer of religious property to the state, so that churches and temples are owned by government departments
   • The complete removal of religion from all public institutions, including schools, hospitals, courts and state ceremonies

2. Which sociologist argued that religion has become 'deprivatised', meaning that it re-enters public debate and politics in the modern world?

   • Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, who argued that existential insecurity shapes levels of religiosity across societies
   • Steve Bruce, who argued that modernisation reduces the social significance of religion in most societies
   • Rodney Stark, who argued that religious markets with competition tend to produce higher levels of participation
   • Jose Casanova

3. Which factor is associated with the rapid spread of Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the twentieth century?

   • The strict policy of colonial governments, which banned all religions except Christianity from the early twentieth century
   • Growth in Pentecostal and charismatic forms of Christianity, which attract large numbers of new adherents
   • The closure of schools and universities by religious groups, which forced many students to convert to Christianity
   • The decline of all religious institutions in these regions, which left a vacuum that Christianity filled by default

4. How does globalisation contribute to the spread of religions across national borders?

   • Globalisation creates a single world religion with one leader, which is accepted by all states and their citizens
   • Globalisation removes the need for religion, because economic integration makes all forms of belief unnecessary
   • Migration, communication technologies and transnational networks allow religious ideas and communities to travel and connect across states
   • Globalisation prevents the movement of religious ideas across borders, because religion is entirely tied to its country of origin

5. Which claim is central to Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart's 'existential security' thesis?

   • Religiosity tends to be higher where people face greater insecurity, and lower where welfare and security are widely guaranteed
   • Religiosity is highest where education is lowest, because uneducated people are the only group to hold religious belief
   • Religiosity is unrelated to security, because belief is determined entirely by the genetic inheritance of each person
   • Religiosity tends to be higher where people are richest, because wealth allows people to pursue spiritual goals in full and freely

6. Which religion is among the fastest growing in the world in terms of population, partly through higher fertility and conversion in some regions?

   • Judaism, which has grown rapidly in every region of the world because of high rates of conversion and migration
   • Islam
   • Sikhism, which has grown rapidly in Africa because of the expansion of its temples into new national populations
   • Buddhism, which has grown rapidly in Europe because of new mass conversions and the expansion of monasteries

7. What does the term 'religious pluralism' refer to in discussions of the spread of religions?

   • The coexistence of several religions within a society, with competition, tolerance or negotiation among them
   • The practice of a single religion in a village, with no contact with any religious groups outside the community
   • The requirement that all citizens follow one state religion, which is enforced by law and police action in every region
   • The belief that all religions are identical in their doctrines, rituals and organisational structures

8. Which argument would a critic of secularisation theory make about the global situation of religion?

   • Religion has always been stronger in Europe than elsewhere, so the critic argues that European patterns are universal
   • Religion remains strong in many parts of the world and is adapting, so the decline thesis does not describe global patterns
   • Religion has disappeared from every country in the world, so the critic argues that secularisation is complete everywhere
   • Religion has grown only in the richest countries, so the critic argues that wealth is the only cause of religion

9. Which concept describes the process by which religious institutions retain a presence in areas such as education and health while losing their role in state government?

   • Hegemony, in which dominant groups secure consent to their rule through ideas that seem natural and common sense
   • Differentiation, in which social institutions specialise and religion's role is reduced to particular spheres
   • Syncretism, in which beliefs from different traditions are blended into new religious forms and practices
   • Anomie, in which the breakdown of norms leaves individuals without clear guidance about acceptable conduct

10. Why might the global spread of a religion be shaped by local cultural adaptation?

    • Religions usually adapt their practices and expression to local languages, customs and social conditions as they spread
    • Religions adapt only when governments force them to change, so local cultures have no influence on religious practice
    • Religions adapt only by abandoning their core beliefs entirely, so they cease to exist in the new locations they reach
    • Religions never adapt to local conditions, because their doctrines are fixed and identical in every place they reach

11. Which pattern is consistent with the claim that secularisation has been uneven across the world?

    • Religious participation has fallen in every country at the same rate, so the decline has been identical everywhere
    • Religious participation has been unchanged in every country for over a century, so there has been no secularisation at all in any region
    • Religious participation remains high in some countries but falls sharply in others, reflecting different histories and social conditions
    • Religious participation has risen in every country at the same rate, so the growth has been identical everywhere

12. Which concept describes the way that religious movements can offer social welfare, education and community services in areas where the state provides little support?

    • Religious provision of welfare and community services, which can fill gaps left by state provision
    • Religious disenchantment, in which the magical elements of religion are removed by rationalisation and science
    • Religious monopoly, in which one religious organisation controls all belief and practice within a state
    • Religious market failure, in which religious groups collapse because no members are willing to pay for services

13. Which statement about the relationship between economic development and religious participation is most consistent with cross-national research?

    • Economic development always increases religious participation, in every country and at every level of wealth
    • Economic development has no relationship to religion, because belief is entirely a matter of individual genetic inheritance
    • Economic development always leads to the complete disappearance of religion, in every country and at every level of wealth
    • The relationship is complex and varies, as religion can decline in some developed countries but remain strong in others

14. Evaluate the claim that the spread of religions across the world shows that secularisation has failed.

    • The claim is confirmed by the fact that no country in the world has seen any decline in religious participation in its history
    • The claim overstates the evidence, since growth in some regions does not show that secularisation has failed everywhere
    • The claim is irrelevant, because the spread of religions has no connection to any social, economic or political factors at all
    • The claim is fully proven, because religion has grown in every region of the world at the same rate over the last century

15. Which conclusion best follows from the view that religion can both decline in some societies and spread in others?

    • Religion has neither declined nor spread anywhere, because its social role has remained fixed since the start of history
    • Religion spreads only in societies that have already secularised, so religious spread is always a consequence of decline
    • Religion must either decline or spread everywhere, so it is impossible for both processes to occur in different places at once
    • Secularisation and religious spread can occur together in different places, so global analysis must consider context and variation

16. What is meant by 'religious switching' in survey research?

    • Moving religious buildings from city centres to suburbs as the population of towns and cities changes over time
    • Changing the language used in religious services to match the language of the most recent migrants to an area
    • Changing religious affiliation during the life course, such as moving from one denomination to another or to none
    • Shifting the time of religious services to the evening, so that more people can attend after finishing work each week

17. Which measures would a researcher use to compare levels of religious practice across countries?

    • The number of religious festivals each country includes in its national calendar of public holidays every year
    • Survey data on attendance, belief and the importance of religion, collected using comparable questions
    • Official records of the number of religious buildings in each country, kept by government planning departments
    • The total amount of money given to religious organisations from government budgets in each year

18. Which trend in religious change over the past century is most often noted by researchers?

    • Decline of all major world religions on every continent, with no significant growth in any region since 1900
    • Growth of ancient polytheistic religions across Africa and Asia, which have become the largest religions in the world
    • Rapid growth of Christianity and Islam in Western Europe, alongside a rise in attendance across all European states
    • Rapid growth of Christianity and Islam in the Global South, alongside decline in parts of Europe

19. How does migration contribute to the global spread of religions?

    • Migrants are required by most governments to renounce their faith before they can enter the country legally
    • Migrants lose their religion on arrival, so migration always reduces the number of believers in any receiving country
    • Migrants carry their faiths to new countries, where they build congregations and sometimes attract local converts
    • Migrants attend religious services only in their home countries, so their faith has no influence abroad at all

20. Which factor is most often used to explain the varying strength of religion between countries?

    • Differences in the average age of national leaders, which is taken as a measure of how traditional each society's politics is
    • Differences in existential security, education and institutional history, which shape how important religion remains
    • Differences in the average height of the population, which researchers have found to predict religious belief most reliably
    • Differences in the number of religious buildings per head, which are fixed by each country's constitution and never change

Related quizzes

• Conceptions of culture Quiz · 4.2.1.1 · 20 questions
• Socialisation and the agencies of socialisation Quiz · 4.2.1.2 · 20 questions
• The self, identity and difference Quiz · 4.2.1.3 · 20 questions
• Identity and age, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexuality and class Quiz · 4.2.1.4 · 20 questions
• Identity, production, consumption and globalisation Quiz · 4.2.1.5 · 20 questions
• The family, social structure and social change Quiz · 4.2.2.1 · 20 questions
• Marriage, cohabitation, divorce and the life course Quiz · 4.2.2.2 · 20 questions
• Gender roles, domestic labour and power in the family Quiz · 4.2.2.3 · 20 questions
• The nature of childhood Quiz · 4.2.2.4 · 20 questions
• Demographic trends in the UK since 1900 Quiz · 4.2.2.5 · 20 questions