Abstract
In public discourse and much sociological research individuals are considered secular if they do not hold religious beliefs or belong to any religious group. But can the secular itself become an object of both belief and belonging? Can secular people develop self-understanding and existential purpose in communal contexts that engage a religious model? To explore these questions I investigated the Sunday Assembly, a new network of secular congregations. Based on two years of research including fieldwork at the London, San Diego, and Chicago Assemblies, in-depth interviews with 21 Assemblers, and analysis of video-recorded Assembly services, this study examines the interactional, meaning-making dynamics of what I term communal secularity. I explore the broader question of belief, morality, and belonging in an increasingly complex secular-religious landscape through an analysis of the congregational activity of this newest iteration of the growing secular community. Having distilled thematic categories from an inductive analysis of the talk, practice, and other elements of congregational culture at the Sunday Assembly, this study reveals the social interactions, functions, and symbolic practices that frame participants experiences and express secular values and belief systems. I argue the secular can become an object of a nonsupernaturalist sacred, and that congregants engage interactions and meaning structures, both explicitly and implicitly, that parallel, coalesce with, and in several ways depart from, traditional religious congregations. My research reveals how secular beliefs can both function and fulfill in ways typically credited to religion. As such, the secular should not refer exclusively to the lack of religiosity, but should acknowledge the diversity of contemporary secular forms, some of which embrace a religious character. Implications of communal secularity for the broader community are discussed, and I suggest additional vistas of research as part of the emerging scholarly literature in this area.
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Notes
See Lois Lee’s excellent book, Recognizing the Nonreligious (2015) for a detailed discussion of the relationships and differences between these ideas, as well as the conceptual challenges of—and sometimes confusion with—related terminology.
This study included “nonaffiliated believers” and the “culturally religious” along with atheists and agnostics, putting the percentage of secular Americans at 28%. I have excluded the latter two categories for a more cautious interpretation of secular, and one that aligns with the view of Assemblers.
Of course, the “secular community” does not refer only to secular people who organize. It can refer generically to all those who do not affiliate with any religion or self-identify with a secular labels (atheist, agnostic, secular humanist etc.). In fact, it is likely the majority of such individuals do not organize into social or activist secular groups.
This was still early in the development of the SA in the United States. The media and interested parties beyond the Assemblers themselves were in attendance, so it was not unexpected to have such requests.
Most religious congregations meet weekly, but given its newness, the fact it relies solely on volunteer organizers instead professional clergy, and lacks many of the preexisting organizational resources many traditional religious congregations enjoy, U.S. Assemblies have so far limited their services to once a month. Some Assemblies in the U.K., where the SA began, do hold services more than monthly, which could suggest the Assemblies in U.S. that can, will start meeting more often if interest and demand continue to grow.
All interviewees’ names are pseudonyms.
This is strongly based on self-perception. As Goffman observed, how we think others perceive us can depart significantly from how they actually see us.
Of course, this is not an either-or choice. There is crossover between atheist groups and the SA, and one may participate in both, as they get different things from each.
I have not developed it in this paper, but scholars working in the area of implicit religion, a concept to which an entire journal is devoted, would not likely find much difficulty in mapping on its basic premise to secular congregations.
Manning’s study was published in 2015, two years after the SA emerged, but strangely there is no mention of them at all in her book.
Conflict between secular-atheist organizations has not been my focus, but it would be interesting to explore to what extent different groups’ versions of “appropriate” expressions of atheism are its source. The early schism between the Sunday Assembly, and their spin-off group, the Godless Revival suggest the relevance of this.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Assemblers who took time to share their experience, the reviewers of this manuscript for their insightful feedback, and the editorial team at Qualitative Sociology.
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Appendix
Appendix
Sample Questions from Interview Guide:*
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1)
Tell me about how you came to attend the Sunday Assembly.
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a)
What is the most important thing you get from it?
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b)
Do you attend alone or with others?
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a)
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2)
Do you come from a religious background? Do you consider yourself religious? Is religion important to you today?
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3)
How do you primarily identify and/or think of yourself – secular humanist, nontheist, naturalist, agnostic, atheist etc.?
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4)
How long have you been involved with any explicitly secular groups?
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5)
What do you think groups like the Sunday Assembly have to offer to your community, society, and the global community? What would you say is the purpose and goals of the Sunday Assembly?
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6)
Do you feel like there are enough/effective secular opportunities/spaces to express your nontheist identity?
* Questions were not necessarily asked in this order.
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Smith, J.M. Can the Secular Be the Object of Belief and Belonging? The Sunday Assembly. Qual Sociol 40, 83–109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-016-9350-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-016-9350-7