Roman Catholics in Britain: Faith, Society and Politics.

近几十年来，英国社会的宗教形象发生了显著变化，“无宗教人士”的比例显著增加，认为自己是英国国教或某一特定的非因循守旧传统的人比例下降，非宗派基督徒的人数增加，非基督教信仰的传播也有所增加。在这一更广泛的背景下，罗马天主教徒在成年人口中的比例基本保持稳定，在英国是仅次于英国国教的第二大基督教教派。然而，内部和外部的重大发展影响了英国的机构教会和更广泛的罗马天主教社区，并可能塑造天主教徒如何看待和参与他们的信仰，以及这如何影响他们的日常生活。近年来，人口结构发生了变化，来自东欧的天主教移民大量涌入，教皇本笃十六世于2010年秋季访问英国(自1982年以来首次访问英国)，教皇方济各自2013年起担任教皇，天主教领导人对“咄咄逼人的世俗主义”和其他政策辩论进行了政治干预，内部危机和辩论对天主教会的权威产生了影响。上一次对天主教社区(仅在英格兰和威尔士)进行重大学术调查是在20世纪70年代末(Hornsby-Smith and Lee 1979；Hornsby-Smith 1987,1991)。研究发现，由于社会变化和更广泛信仰的发展，天主教社区在战后时期的“独特亚文化”正在以复杂的方式演变和消解，例如第二届梵蒂冈理事会(Hornsby-Smith 1987,1991)。这也表明天主教徒在宗教信仰、实践和社会态度方面的内部异质性日益增强(Hornsby-Smith 1987,1991)。然而，尽管最近有一些关于英国天主教徒和天主教的特定主题的学术研究，使用的是一般社会调查和有限的一次性特定教派的民意调查(Clements 2014a，2014b；2016；Bullivant 2016a，2016b)，但还没有对英国的罗马天主教人口进行系统的学术调查。相比之下，一项由学者领导的调查系列在1987年至2011年期间五次描绘了美国天主教人口的概况，近年来由皮尤研究中心等机构进行的其他大规模调查也是如此。大多数现有的关于英国宗教信仰、实践和信仰的衰落的研究要么集中在非常大的宏观层面，要么集中在非常小的微观层面。虽然这两者都是重要和必要的，但社会学一直缺乏对世俗化趋势如何影响个人宗教社区并在其中进行调解的持续关注。该项目将通过进行一项大规模、主题广泛和具有全国代表性的调查，为英国的罗马天主教徒承担这项任务。它将详细研究具有独特历史根源的重要宗教少数群体的个人信仰、社会态度和政治参与，这些宗教少数群体具有独特的历史根源，并具有强烈的部落归属感。核心主题将包括个人信仰、宗教信仰和参与教区生活的社团活动；对机构教会内的领导和治理的态度；对社会和道德问题的态度；以及政治态度和参与。它的主题广泛，分析丰富，详细描述了当代天主教在社会、宗教和态度上的异质性。通过进行这项大规模和广泛的调查，将对整个英国的宗教社会学，特别是对其天主教人口的研究做出重要而独特的贡献。

In recent decades, the religious profile of British society has changed significantly, with a marked increase in 'religious nones', declining proportions identifying as Anglican or with a particular Non-Conformist tradition, an increase in non-denominational Christians, and the spread of non-Christian faiths. Within this wider context, Roman Catholics have remained broadly stable as a proportion of the adult population and represent the second largest Christian denomination in Britain, after Anglicans. However, there have been significant internal and external developments which have affected the institutional church and wider Roman Catholic community in Britain, and which could have shaped how Catholics' think about and engage with their faith and how it impacts their daily lives. Recent years have seen demographic change through significant inflows of Catholic migrants coming from Eastern Europe, the papal visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain in autumn 2010 (the first since 1982), Pope Francis's pontificate from 2013 onwards, Catholic leaders' political interventions against 'aggressive secularism' and in other policy debates, and internal crises and debates impacting on the perceived authority of the Catholic Church.The last major academic investigation of the Catholic community (and only in England and Wales) was undertaken in the late 1970s (Hornsby-Smith and Lee 1979; Hornsby-Smith 1987, 1991). It found that the 'distinctive subculture' of the Catholic community in the post-war period was evolving and dissolving in complex ways due to processes of social change and developments within the wider faith, such as the Second Vatican Council (Hornsby-Smith 1987, 1991). It also demonstrated growing internal heterogeneity in Catholics' religious beliefs, practices and social attitudes (Hornsby-Smith 1987, 1991). However, while there has been some recent scholarship on particular topics relating to Catholics and Catholicism in Britain, using both general social surveys and limited one-off denomination-specific opinion polls (Clements 2014a, 2014b; 2016; Bullivant 2016a, 2016b), there has been no systematic academic inquiry into the Roman Catholic population in Britain. In comparison, an academic-led survey series has profiled the Catholic population in the United States on five occasions between 1987 and 2011, with other large-scale surveys carried out in recent years by organisations such as the Pew Research Center. Most existing research into the waning of religious belief, practice, and affiliation in Britain has focused either on the very large, macro level or on the very small, micro level. While both are important and necessary, largely missing has been sustained sociological attention on how secularising trends have affected - and are being mediated within - individual religious communities.This project would undertake such a task for Roman Catholics in Britain, by conducting a large-scale, thematically wide-ranging and nationally representative survey. It would provide a detailed study of personal faith, social attitudes and political engagement within a significant religious minority with distinctive historical roots and in which 'tribal' feelings of belonging have been strong.The core topics would consist of personal faith, religiosity and associational involvement in parish life; attitudes towards leadership and governance within the institutional church; attitudes on social and moral issues; and political attitudes and engagement. It would be thematically wide-ranging and analytically rich, providing a detailed portrait of contemporary social, religious and attitudinal heterogeneity amongst Catholics.By undertaking this large-scale and wide-ranging survey, an important and distinctive contribution would be made to the sociology of religion in Britain in general and to the study of its Catholic population in particular.