Cambridge A-Level Sociology: Secularisation, Feminism and Post-modern Religion — Practice Questions (9699)

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs — Cambridge International holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or Cambridge directly.

Related: Secularisation, feminism and post-modern religion revision notes

These questions cover Cambridge International A Level Sociology (9699) Paper 4, heading 12 The influence of religion (12.1, 12.2 and 12.3). Each Paper 4 essay is worth 35 marks and needs contrasting views or evidence.

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Warm-up questions

W1. Define secularisation. [2]

W2. Explain what Grace Davie meant by believing without belonging. [2]

W3. Identify Wallis’s three types of new religious movement. [3]

W4. Give two explanations for the growth of fundamentalism. [4]

Warm-up answers

• W1. The process by which religious thinking, practices and institutions lose social significance (Wilson, 1966).
• W2. People continue to hold religious beliefs privately even though they no longer attend services or belong to religious organisations (Religion in Britain since 1945, 1994).
• W3. World-rejecting, world-accommodating and world-affirming (Wallis, 1984).
• W4. Any two, developed: cultural defence — protecting identity against external threat; cultural transition — helping migrants cope; marginality — deprived groups seeking certainty; disengagement — withdrawal from a corrupt secular world; religious revival — renewal against moral decline; reaction to globalisation (Giddens, 1999). 2 marks each.

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Essay 1 (12.1)

“Rationalisation has led to a decline in religious belief.” Evaluate this view. [35]

Indicative content

For:

• Weber: rational, scientific thought produces disenchantment.
• Berger (1967): pluralism removes the single sacred canopy, making belief a matter of choice and doubt.
• Bruce (2002): technology gives practical control; generational decline in belief.
• Survey evidence of falling belief among the young in many Western societies.

Against:

• Berger’s later desecularisation argument (1999).
• Norris and Inglehart (2004): insecurity, not rationality, explains religiosity; global growth.
• Stark and Bainbridge (1985): demand for religion constant; compensators for unmet desires.
• Growth of spirituality, NRMs and Pentecostalism in rationalised societies.
• Scientists and highly educated people may be religious; science and religion can coexist.

Evaluation: rationalisation may explain institutional decline more than belief; consider regional differences and measurement problems.

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Essay 2 (12.1)

“Religion has lost its social significance.” Evaluate this view. [35]

Indicative content

• For: Wilson (1966); disengagement of religion from law, education, welfare; decline of religious rites of passage; Bruce on generational decline.
• Against: Casanova (1994) — deprivatisation; religion in politics and conflict (link to 11.3: Iran, US Evangelicals); religion as identity for minorities and migrants (cultural defence and transition); faith schools and religious charities; global growth (Norris and Inglehart).
• Evaluation: distinguish personal belief from institutional influence; judge between societies.

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Essay 3 (12.2)

“Religion is a source of patriarchal oppression.” Evaluate this view. [35]

Indicative content

For:

• de Beauvoir (1949): religion compensates women for subordination.
• Male leadership and exclusion of women from clergy in many faiths.
• Patriarchal interpretations of texts; restrictions on dress, marriage and divorce; ideas of female impurity.
• Armstrong (1993): the rise of male-dominated monotheism displaced earlier goddesses.

Against:

• El Saadawi (1980): patriarchal interpretation, not religion itself, oppresses women.
• Moves to equality: Church of England women priests (1994) and bishop (2015); women rabbis.
• Watson (1994): veiling as chosen identity and protection from the male gaze.
• Woodhead: women use religion for their own ends; women’s prominence in New Age spirituality.

Evaluation: liberal versus radical feminist positions; differences between and within religions; agency versus constraint.

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Essay 4 (12.3)

“Post-modern religion is a matter of personal choice.” Evaluate this view. [35]

Indicative content

For:

• Privatised religion; spiritual shopping (Lyon, Jesus in Disneyland, 2000).
• Hervieu-Léger’s pilgrims; decline of inherited religious identity.
• Heelas and Woodhead (2005): holistic spirituality growing in Kendal.
• New Age ideas and world-affirming NRMs centred on the self.

Against:

• Fundamentalism and cultural defence show religion as collective, inherited and binding rather than chosen.
• Ethnic minority religiosity is often tied to family and community identity.
• Kendal’s spiritual revolution was too small to replace congregational religion.
• Choice may be constrained by class, gender and socialisation.

Evaluation: choice may describe religion among affluent Western groups more than globally; judge whether resacralisation is individual or collective.

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Essay 5 (12.3)

“The growth of fundamentalism is best explained as a form of cultural defence.” Evaluate this view. [35]

Indicative content

For: Bruce (1996) — religion becomes a focus for identity when a group feels threatened by an outside power, modernity or globalisation; Giddens (1999) — fundamentalism defends tradition in a traditional way against globalising change; examples of religion fused with national or ethnic identity.

Alternative explanations from the syllabus:

• Cultural transition — migrants and those moving from rural to urban life use religion to cope with rapid change and keep a sense of community.
• Marginality — deprived and excluded groups are drawn to faiths offering certainty and a promise of reward (Weber’s theodicy of disprivilege).
• Disengagement — believers withdraw from a secular society they see as morally corrupt.
• Religious revival — renewal movements arise in cycles, as religious market theory (Stark and Bainbridge, 1985) predicts.

Evaluation: explanations overlap; cultural defence fits national conflicts, marginality and transition fit migrant and urban poor communities; “fundamentalism” is itself a contested label that can be applied unfairly to devout but peaceful believers. Conclude on which explanation fits most cases.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I avoid repeating the same evidence in secularisation essays? Group evidence by type — practice, belief, institutional significance — and tailor it to each question’s focus.

Is fundamentalism a sign of secularisation or resacralisation? Both are argued: it may be a reaction to secularisation, but its growth also shows religion remains powerful.

Do feminist essays need non-Western evidence? Using more than one faith and society strengthens evaluation and application.

Related pages: influence of religion study guide | religion and social order practice questions