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The Protestant Catholic problem in Ireland
History of Protestant and Catholic relationships in Northern Ireland
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Davie's (1994) concept of ‘believing without belonging’ describes the movement away from organised religion and the increasing numbers of people who are ‘spiritual but not religious’ (Davie, 1994). It describes why people feel they no longer need to take part in religious practises, but still classify themselves as ‘Catholic’. This essay will first discuss what it means to believe, secondly the extent to which Davie's concept is applicable to the Irish context by describing the in-depth penetration of religion in history and also will suggest how the contradictory hypothesis ‘belonging without believing’ is also applicable.
Glock and Stark's (1968) multidimensional analysis of the 8 ways of being religious measures religiosity in conventional terms. It describes what it means to ‘believe’. To truly believe you must adhere to the following 8 dimensions. The first dimension is the experimental dimension; a deep connection one feels with God. The ritualistic dimension involves participation in ritual service. The devotional aspect involves private praying and faithfulness to religious teachings. The belief dimension refers to the degree to which a person agrees with the beliefs of the group. The knowledge dimension refers to knowing these beliefs and rituals of the group. The consequential dimension has to do with how religion impacts behaviours and attitudes in everyday life. The communal aspect refers to amount of friends and family one has in the same denomination. Particularism is a measure of the extent to which one believes that one's own faith offers the only hope of salvation (Roberts, 2003). In the Irish modern society to be religious, as reported by Glock and Stark, is an increasingly difficult task. Typically Irish people...
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...rnal of Contemporary Religion, Volume 22(2), pp. 205-220.
Mohler, A., 2007. Crosswalk. [Online]
Available at: http://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/the-trend-of- believing-without-belonging-11536808.html
[Accessed 2013 12 07].
O’Sullivan, D., 2005. Cultural Politics and Irish Education since the 1950’s: Policies, paradigms and power. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.
O'Doherty, M., 2008. Empty Pulpits: Ireland’s retreat from Religion. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Roberts, K.,2003. Implications of One's Definition of Religion for Conducting for Research. Religion in Sociological Perspective, Volume 4: Wadsworth Publishing.
Stark, R and Glock, C., 1968. American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment. Berkeley.
Walsh, W., 1999. Religion in Ireland- Past, present and future: The church in the new Millennium. Dublin: The Columbia Press.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic, are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans, or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics, attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
The goal of this paper is to determine if the Catholic religion has continued to modernize since Vatican II. In order to help analyze the modernization of Catholicism, this paper will examine the immigration of Catholics to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout this paper, I will reference Dr. Julie Byrne’s commentary, a professor in American religious history at Duke University, as a means of explaining how Catholicism has assimilated into American culture. Next, this paper suggests three challenges that Catholics are presently facing in the 21st century. Finally, this paper will elaborate on the growth in “irreligious Catholics” and its potential dangers. Although Catholicism assimilated into American culture during the 19th and 20th centuries, research and the rise in “irreligious Catholics” in the 21st century suggests it is possible that Catholicism has not continued to modernize.
Westerkamp, Marilyn. Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.
Throughout time, the definition of what is considered to be “religion” has been proven to be quite a challenge. This is primarily due to the fact that religions continuously evolve over time as well as an individual’s perception and understanding about what religion seems to be. Despite this ongoing process of modifications when attempting to characterize and define religion, what is certainly constant is the fact that religion plays a great role in influencing societies and individuals historically (McGuire 5). In order for an individual to well integrate oneself into society and build a daily life, religious practices is essential to this process. By analyzing the effects of religion and religious practices on communities and individuals, it will become apparent that religious practices are quite more important than religion itself and its institutions when it comes to helping one adjust into society and life.
Ireland has a very conflicted history. Just when that history may seem to take a turn for the better, it seems that there is always another event to keep the trend of depression ongoing. The separation of the Protestant and Catholic Church would be the center of these events. However, the two different groups could potentially work together for the betterment of the nation. Through an analysis of why Protestants and Catholics split in the first place, disadvantages that Catholics would face in the coming years and also how these disadvantages were lifted, an argument will be developed in that there is perhaps the chance that they may end up working together in the future for the betterment of Ireland. Although these two groups would fight over the countless decades, they need to join into one entity if they wish to see a better future for Ireland.
Though much is lost to history, we do still know a considerable amount about Irish Celtic cultures and practices. The records that we do have come from a variety of secondary sources including Roman records of the Celts, Catholic documents, Secular prose and poetry, and even a few primary ancient Irish texts (2, 6). The script of pre-christian Ireland is known as Ogam, the earliest examples of which date back as far as the fourth century (2). However, because early Irish mythology was a mostly oral tradition, more widespread literacy in Ireland did not begin until Christianity came to the island in the early 400s (2). Pope Palladius sent the first Catholic missionaries to Ireland in 431 C.E. (2). Their goal of spreading the Catholic gospel created the need for literacy among the newly establi...
In the beginning, life was not easy for the numerous Irish - Catholic immigrants who fled the Great Potato Famine of 1845 and, “. . . Protestant ascendancy, British colonialism and turbulence in their own country. . . “(2) Because of their lack of funds many Irish immigrants landed in less expensive Canadian ports, and then walked down into the United States.(3) Not only was the ocean voyage difficult, but once reaching the United States, most immigrants found that they were not welcomed with open arms, but rather pushed away because of their religious affiliations. Catholics found themselves the minority and targets of discrimination.(4) Settled Americans saw the new influx of Irish immigrants as a plague, dirtying their streets and neighborhoods, filling their jails and sanitariums, creating public disruption. “Negative stereotypes imported from England characterizing the Irish as pugnacious, drunken, semi-savage, were common and endured. . . “(5) A...
According to Ninian Smart, the seven dimensions of religion include practical and ritual, emotional and experiential, narrative and mythical, ethical and legal, doctrinal and philosophical, social and institutional, and material. The practical and ritual dimension involves rituals and practices that provide spiritual awareness of adherents. The emotional and experiential dimension includes the life changing experiences that either the leaders or followers of a religion go through. Narrative and mythical dimension are the stories and past records that preserve tradition and culture in the religion. Ethical and legal dimension of the religion are basically the codes of behavior that are followed and expected within the religion. The doctrinal and philosophical dimension is the belief system created by leaders for believers. Social and Institutional dimension is the organizational structure of the religion. Last but not least the material dimension includes works of people and preservation of sacred places creating symbolic representation of traditional beliefs. Using these seven dimensions, we will explore how they can be interpreted in the religion of Christianity.
The authors provide a background to the Troubles of Northern Ireland, with their main focus being a detailed analysis of the religious, geographical, age and gender distribution of polit...
Ireland in The Coming Times- Essays to Celebrate T.K. Whitaker’s 80 Years edited by F. O’ Muircheartaigh, IPA, Dublin, 1997.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
One of the most closely watched and widely debated conflict of our time is the one occurring In Northern Ireland. It has been a hot debate for over a century now, yet the root of the conflict is still unclear. There have been many theories over time, yet none have been able to adequately describe what is really happening on the matter. This conflict is divided by many lines; ethnically between the Irish and the British, and religiously by the Catholics and Protestant denominations.
Foster, R.F.,ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland. Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York, 1989.
Religion in James Joyce's Dubliners Religion was an integral part of Ireland during the modernist period, tightly woven into the social fabric of its citizens. The Catholic Church was a longstanding tradition of Ireland. In the modernist spirit of breaking away from forces that inhibited growth, the church stood as one of the principal barriers. This is because the Catholic faith acted as the governing force of its people, as portrayed in James Joyce’s Dubliners. In a period when Ireland was trying to legitimize their political system, religious affiliations further disillusioned the political process. The governing body of a people needs to provide a behavioral framework, through its constitution, and a legal process to make delegations on issues of equity and fairness. When religion dominates the government that is in tact, it subjects its citizens to their religious doctrines. In terms of Catholicism in Ireland, this meant that social progress and cultural revolutions were in terms of what the church would allow. The modernist realized that this is what paralyzed the Irish society of the times. In the stories of Dubliners the legal system is replaced by the institute of religion, and it is the presence and social context of the Catholic Church which prevents the Irish community from advancement. ...