Religion and Political Change in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Studies conducted in industrial societies generally suggest that partisans of social change are unlikely to be religiously oriented, whereas research in Third World countries demonstrates a common tendency for demands for change to be linked with religious ideologies. This paper reports on the relationship between religion and social change as reflected in the development of a social movement in Northern Ireland, a partially modernized society. The members of this movement are shown to be strikingly disaffiliatedfrom religion. It is suggested that this lack of religious identity may be a key factor in explaining the group's inability to secure mass support. Some generalizations concerning the relationship between religion and social change in societies of this sort are tentatively proposed. There has been extensive consideration among sociologists of the relationship between religious commitment and change-oriented political activism. Although the theoretical roots of this debate go back at least as far as Marx (Easton and Guddat, 1967), recent writing in the area derives largely from perspectives raised by Glock and Stark (1965:185-226). These authors present substantial empirical evidence drawn from a variety of industrialized societies to suggest that, especially among the working classes, persons who are in favor of significant social change are unlikely to be church attenders or strongly oriented toward religious perspectives. The primary explanation offered for this finding is that, in modern