The government’s changes to faith schools side with hardline religion

This month the government announced its plans to remove the 50% cap on selection by religion for faith-based free schools and academies. Here Linda Woodhead argues that in striving to protect the rights of religious minorities, the government is undermining the religious centre ground. In today’s majority ‘no religion’ society, she warns, we need to be careful: growing ignorance about religion does not have to mean growing gullibility, understanding the actual weight of religious opinion is crucial

Religion and Brexit:populism and the Church of England

Drawing on our own recent surveys on beliefs and values in Great Britain (Woodhead) and evangelical Christians in the UK (Smith) this article explores the links between religion, views and votes on leaving or remaining in the EU in the UK’s 2016 referendum. Poll data gathered shortly after the 2016 referendum (n = 3,243) allows us to test associations between religious identity and behaviour and attitudes to voting Leave, while controlling for other demographic variables. The main finding is that identifying as Church of England (Anglican) is an important independent predictor of voting Leave even when other relevant factors like age and region are corrected for. By contrast, self-defined English evangelicals (from an opportunity sample of 1,198, collected and analysed by Smith) appear to be more pro-EU and generally internationalist in outlook. Previous surveys by Woodhead on religion and values in the UK provide some explanation for these findings, and for the striking difference of UK and US evangelicals, 81% of whom supported Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election. The article ends with reflections on whether the term ‘populist’ can be usefully applied to the evangelical pro-Trump vote in the US or the Church of England pro-Brexit vote in the UK. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Omvärdering av offentliga religion

Under det innevarande århundradet har det också i de mest "sekulära" samhällen i Väst blivit allt tydligare att religion spelar en roll i det offentliga livet och att det inte bara kan beskrivas som något "privatiserat". Men hur skall denna offentliga roll förstås och analyseras? Denna artikel presenterar en ram för en sådan analys som tar de olika roller, som olika slags religioner spelar i de moderna samhällenas differentierade sfärer (utbildning, juridik, välfärd osv.), på allvar. Med andra ord, den laborerar med ett antal variabler: Vilken typ av religion? Vilken är relationen mellan det religiösa och det sekulära? Inom vilken/vilka sociala sfär(er)? Vilken typ av roll spelar religon? I vilka relationer till klass, gender, etnicitet och andra utgångspunkter för ojämlikhet? Denna differentierade modell tager sin utgångspunkt i en kritik av existerande uppfattningar av offentlig religion (ex. Bryan Wilson resp. José Casanova) och de antagelser som de utgår ifrån, inklusive en insnävning till det nationella, en sammansmältning av social differentiering och en snäv kyrko- eller denominations-fokuserad syn på religion. Resultatet är ett analytiskt verktyg som är bättre utformat för att kunna taga hänsyn till olika former för offentlig religion som är finna på lokalt, nationellt och transnationellt nivå i de senmoderna konsumtionssamhällena

An interview with Terhi Utriainen

An interview with Terhi Utriainen by Linda Woodhead

Trends in Church Life: The Spiritual Revolution

This paper employs empirical research methods to ascertain ways in which Christianity may need to develop if it is to retain active support in the West. It describes outcomes from a two-year locality study undertaken by a team from Lancaster University with the aim of mapping ‘contemporary patterns of the sacred’ (more fully developed in the 2005 book The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality by Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead). One major finding was that ‘subjectivized’ forms of religion and spirituality (those which speak to and resource personal subjective life) appear to be growing rapidly at the expense of traditional forms of religion. The paper concludes with thoughts on ways in which Christianity could develop that would help it to make headway within a subjectivised culture

Magt og religion i religionsvidenskaben

Mange hidtidige forsøg på at definere religion og nå frem til en adækvat religionsforståelse har ikke i tilstrækkelig grad taget magtaspektet i betragtning. I artiklen udvikler jeg gennem problematisering af eksisterende teorier en ny religionsdefinition, der i højere grad tager magtaspektet i betragtning. Jeg påviser nogle af de vanskeligheder, som de eksisterende modeller støder på, når de skal få mening ud af den nyeste religiøse udvikling. Endelig spidsformulerer jeg min forståelse gennem fem prægnante teser, som illustrerer nødvendigheden af at tage magtaspektet alvorligt, hvis man skal forstå religion i dag

Choosing a Faith School in Leicester:admissions criteria, diversity and choice

Religion in Britain is in overall decline and ‘no religion’ is growing, but one-third of schools in the State sector in England and Wales are ‘schools with a religious designation’ (‘faith schools’). Historically, these were Protestant and Catholic Church schools, but new faith schools have been established by Churches and other faiths. Governments of all parties have encouraged this development, chiefly on the grounds of increased parental choice and improved quality. The research presented here provides evidence about the operation of faith schools in the English city of Leicester in 2016, particularly from the perspective of those choosing a school. The main objectives are (1) to indicate the diversity of faith schools, (2) to show how they present themselves to those looking for a school: their admission requirements and level of educational attainment and (3) to reflect on the claim that faith schooling offers more and better choice and quality. Leicester is selected for its size and diversity; it is small enough to study with the resources available to us and is one of the most multi-ethnic and multifaith urban areas in England. Research was carried out between February and July 2016 and offers a snapshot from that year

The Rise of ‘No Religion’:Towards an Explanation

By 2015 those who said they had “no religion” when asked about religion on surveys and censuses had become an absolute majority in Britain. Drawing on surveys and interviews carried out in Great Britain between 2013 and 2015 this lecture offers a portrait of the “nones” and attempts to explain their rise to become a cultural majority

How Anglicans tipped the Brexit vote

Two-thirds of Anglicans voted for Brexit, a much higher proportion than in the country as a whole. Greg Smith (William Temple Foundation) and Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University) look at the reasons for the disparity and note the divergence between the beliefs of UK evangelicals - including the Archbishop of Canterbury - and 'normal' Anglicans