Secularization by Steve Bruce

Secularization by Steve Bruce

The decline in power, popularity and prestige of religion across the modern world is not a short-term or localized trend nor is it an accident. It is a consequence of subtle but powerful features of modernization. Renowned sociologist, Steve Bruce, elaborates the secularization paradigm and defends it against a wide variety of recent attempts at rebuttal and refutation. Using the best available statistical and qualitative evidence Bruce considers the implications for the secularization paradigm of the extent to which new religious movements or New Age spiritualities are replacing religion; changes in the nature and power of folk religion and superstition; rational choice alternatives to the secularization paradigm; the popularity and political influence of religion in the USA; religious change in the developing world; reactions to Islam in Europe; and the effects of recent controversies over the public place of religion. Bruce presents a robust defence of the secularization paradigm, clarifying its arguments for the benefit of all sides of the debate.

Bruce conceives of a delightful analogy for secularisationHe imagines a wave on a retreating tide every time the wave rises to meet the shore, it moves a little further out to sea. He argues that although religion experiences ebbs and flows, it is ultimately retreating as its transmission from one generation to the next weakens. It is the use of such powerful analogies, as well as the author having a masterful overview of the subject, that makes this an impressively clear and comprehensive book. It offers students an accessible guide to the study of secularisation and, as academic books go, it is a page-turner. * Journal of Contemporary Religion *
hard-hitting but clear and sometimes witty... a useful critique... It is a book which will help some people to face the facts about the decline of religion in the West more honestly. * Graham Gould, Journal of Theological Studies *
a passionate, compelling and responsive book that acts as a useful collation of all recent studies on belief and religiosity seen through a critical eye. * Eliza Filby, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *

Steve Bruce, Professor of Sociology, University of Aberdeen

Steve Bruce is an internationally renowned sociologist of religion. He taught at The Queen's University, Belfast, from 1978 to 1991 and since 2001 he has been Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy and in 2005 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Steve Bruce is the author of a number of books, including Secular Beats Spiritual (OUP, 2017), Bryan Wilson's Religion in Secular Society: Fifty Years On (OUP 2016), and Scottish Gods: Religion in Modern Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2014).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199584406
ISBN 10	0199584400
Title	Secularization
Author	Steve Bruce
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2011-01-27
Number of pages	254
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable