'The Haemorrhage of Faith?': Opinion Polls as Sources for Religious Practices, Beliefs and Attitudes in Scotland since the 1970s

Scotland has traditionally been seen as a religious country which, according to Callum Brown, has latterly succumbed to the same secularising tendencies which have affected many Western civilisations. Brown has described the Scottish process as so severe as to be tantamount to 'the haemorrhage...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Field, Clive D. 19XX- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Carfax Publ. [2001]
In: Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2001, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 157-175
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:Scotland has traditionally been seen as a religious country which, according to Callum Brown, has latterly succumbed to the same secularising tendencies which have affected many Western civilisations. Brown has described the Scottish process as so severe as to be tantamount to 'the haemorrhage of faith'. Commercial opinion poll data for representative samples of the Scottish population, a source not greatly used by Brown, are reviewed here for evidence of religious practices, beliefs and attitudes in contemporary Scotland. Considering these data in isolation, and more briefly in relation to equivalent British and world poll data, it is concluded that there has undoubtedly been religious decline since the 1970s, especially during the 1990s. While Scotland is far from being a post-Christian nation, according to the polls, it is no longer-outwardly or inwardly-significantly more religious than Britain as a whole and much of Western Europe.
ISSN:1469-9419
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13537900120040645