Secularisation and The Diminished Influence of Religion in Society

Religion has often had a very strong influence upon different societies. The influence of religion can increase or decline at different times due to changes in trends or circumstances. The concept that state and religion should be strongly linked together predates Christianity itself. For instance, in Egypt, Greece and Rome the head of state was often the head of the main religion at the same time (Lane Fox, 2005 p. 521). Christianity or at least Roman Catholicism claimed to hold authority over the secular governments of all Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The claims of holding political authority were not born out by reality, yet the Papacy had a strong spiritual hold over most of Western Europe which had managed to survive the heresies and religious controversies that had occurred during the Middle Ages. That was partly because the secular authorities believed that the church provided important social, economic, and political functions that helped effective as well the maintenance of social stability (Chadwick, 1990, p.12).

The Reformation shattered the unity of the Western Christendom polity with the schism between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (Chadwick, 1990, p.12). The Reformation made religion the most contentious issue in Europe and divided states along denominational lines. At various stages wars, civil wars and waves of violent persecutions affected much of Europe (MacCulloch, 2004, p.10). In the states that adopted Protestantism the relationship between the state and religion became ever closer. This was the case in the Protestants parts of the Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, plus the Swiss city-states of Geneva and Zurich (MacCulloch, 2004, p.10).

Perhaps the most obvious example of the church being closely linked with the state wars in England after Henry VIII broke from Rome (Vale, 2006, p.14). The Church of England became the established religion in England and Wales, although it took three decades or so before its doctrines and structures were settled under Elizabeth I (Vale, 2006, p.34).

It was a paradox of Protestantism that although it often depended upon secular power to be established and secured it also inadvertently accelerated social and economical changes that decreased the hold of religious doctrines in Protestant countries. That Protestantism would increase the pace and scope of secularisation was not immediately apparent and it was certainly not the objective of the Protestant churches to reduce the hold of religious doctrine over their host societies (MacCulloch, 2004, p.701). In Catholic countries the pace of secularisation and liberalisation was slower as the authorities did not want to promote the spread of Protestantism (Chadwick, 1990 p. 445, Jones, 1994 p. 138).