Categories: uncategorized
Date: 25 May 2007 18:59:05
Back in 2004 Grace Davie gave this Sociology lecture at Greenbelt, (sorry talk). Part of her whole Belief without Belonging thesis which she was basically talking about relates to the idea that the majority of people now do religion vicariously (i.e. they expect other people do it on their behalf and the only time that it becomes clear that it's still there is at times of national mourning, worry, etc). The usual examples used for this are Princess Di's death and the Hillsborough tragedy.
Today we may have some more evidence to support atleast at some of Davie's theory. The sub-heading below the paper title on the paper version of the Daily Mirror today is Pray for Her with a yellow ribbon beside it. This is referring to the Madeleine abduction story.
If by chance (and I would guess not) anybody else teaching this stuff is reading this you might want to buy a copy of the paper; it really does make a lovely visual resource which will be relevant to the students next year.