Honors Theses
Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Jason Klodt
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines age-related differences in religious practice and opinion in Spain and the influence of the declining status and increasing pluralism of the Catholic Church in the formation of these differences. It argues that there are three distinct age groups with respect to external religious manifestations and that the socialization of these cohorts coincides with three distinct time periods of differing degrees of power and unity of the Church. The introduction lays a historical backdrop for the rest of the work, tracing the status of the Spanish Church from the Civil War through the 1980s. The second chapter defines the age groups with respect to several external religious factors, including church attendance, confidence in the Church as an institution, and opinions concerning abortion and divorce. It uses data from the 1990-1993 World Values Surveys to support the existence of these age gaps, which are the highest in Western Europe. The age groups are defined as persons bom before 1940, persons bom between 1940 and 1960, and persons bom between 1960 and 1975, and the corresponding time periods of socialization are defined as follows: 1940-1960 for the oldest cohort, 1960-1975 for the middle age group, and 1975-1990 for the youngest group. The third chapter discusses the declining political and social power of the Catholic Church and its contribution to the formation of the generational differences, and the fourth chapter highlights the influence of increasing pluralism within the Spanish Church on the establishment of the age groups. The concluding chapter postulates the stabilization of the age-related differences and a continued decrease in religiosity as Spain moves away from the Franco era.
Recommended Citation
Ellzey, Allison Rene, "The Role of the Declining Status and Increasing Pluralism of the Catholic Church in the Formation of Religious Generation Gaps in Spain, 1936-1990" (2004). Honors Theses. 2203.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2203
Accessibility Status
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