Religious belief across ‘post-secular’ Sydney: the multiple trends in (de)secularisation

Cities were once thought to be crucibles of secularisation, where the retreat from religion and its expression would be most pronounced. This decline in faith was linked to the heightened levels of heterogeneity and cosmopolitanism within cities. However, there is recent evidence of both the continuation and of the recession of the secularisation process in contemporary Western societies, with the mix and pace of these trends being quite unique to different countries. Significantly, this combination of processes has been argued to be part of a ‘post-secularist’ paradigm. Drawing on census data, this paper examines the spatial patterns of religious affiliation and non-belief in the Australian city of Sydney. Sydney has divergent geographies of faith and non-faith indicating the spatial multiplicities of religious belief. The decrease in Christianity in some areas of the city has been matched by an increase in non-Christian faiths, while in other areas there has been little change. Some parts of the city—especially those areas with a strong mix of affluence, diversity and cosmopolitanism—betray the strongest levels of secularisation and the retreat of faith. At least five geographies of faith and non-belief are recognisable within Sydney. While post-secularisation has been recognised as internationally uneven, this research demonstrates that it is also uneven across a world city like Sydney. The Sydney variations in (de)secularisation reflect city-based effects, including the historic and contemporary patterns of immigrant settlement, established and emerging religious communities, the segmented geographies of class and affluence, and the development of zones of cosmopolitanism. The findings point to the need for further research on the micro-geographies of religious belief and non-belief and community relations, and the on links between religious communities and civil society.