Secularisation and ‘Sectarianism’

Abstract

If the last chapter demonstrated that empirical evidence for religious disadvantage, let alone discrimination, in contemporary Scotland has proved remarkably elusive, claims that Scotland is ‘sectarian’ run up against another problem. Although sectarianism is founded upon, and around, religious difference, Scotland is an increasingly secular society. Can we reconcile a sectarian Scotland with the evidence of deepening secularisation? We cannot unless we accept that what passes for ‘sectarianism’ in Scotland is, in fact, better understood as non-systematic reservoirs of bigotry, and the continued existence of religious differences. This is not to claim some easy connection between religiosity and sectarianism, but that a sectarian society depends upon sustained religiosity and the continued salience of religious differentiation. This chapter, therefore, investigates the relationship between sectarianism (focusing on its anti-Catholic form) and popular religiosity.