God is Dead Secularization in the West

Drawing on an international range of examples, Steve Bruce offers a comprehensive and up-to-date defence of the secularisation debate.

Steve Bruce is the Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. He has also held visiting posts at the universities of Virginia and Edinburgh. He is one of the world's leading sociologists of religion and has recently been elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Professor Bruce has published 13 books and over 90 articles. The following are his most recent books: Pray TV: Televangelism in America (1990), Religion in Modern Britain (1995), Religion in the Modern World (1996), Conservative Protestant Politics (1998), Sociology: A Very Short Introduction (1999), Choice and Religion (1999), Fundamentalism (Polity, 2001), and Politics and Religion (Polity, 2003).

Figures

x

Tables

xi

Preface

xii

Acknowledgements

xvi

The Secularization Paradigm

1

(44)

Introduction

1

(4)

The paradigm

5

(25)

Counter-tendencies

30

(7)

What the paradigm does not assert

37

(6)

Conclusion

43

(2)

The Golden Age of Faith

45

(15)

Introduction

45

(1)

The critics

46

(4)

What historians show: Institutional religion

50

(7)

What historians show: Supernaturalism

57

(1)

Conclusion

57

(3)

God is Dead: Christianity in Britain

60

(15)

Introduction

60

(1)

Stark theory

60

(2)

The world we have lost

62

(1)

Religion in Britain 1851-2000

63

(10)

Conclusion

73

(2)

The Failure of the New Age

75

(31)

Introduction

75

(1)

Cultic religion

76

(3)

The extent of the New Age

79

(3)

The nature of the New Age

82

(3)

The appeal of the New Age

85

(5)

The precariousness of diffuse beliefs

90

(13)

Conclusion

103

(3)

Science and Secularization

106

(12)

Introduction

106

(2)

The paradox

108

(3)

The resolution

111

(5)

Conclusion

116

(2)

The Easternization of the West

118

(22)

Introduction

118

(1)

Eastern themes

119

(2)

Explaining the changes

121

(10)

Adapting the East

131

(4)

Romanticizing the underdog

135

(2)

Buddhist by default

137

(1)

Conclusion

138

(2)

Regression to the Mean

140

(11)

Introduction

140

(1)

Vignettes

141

(4)

The moral

145

(6)

Subsistence Religion

151

(16)

Introduction

151

(1)

The defects of state churches

152

(3)

The supply-side explanation of inactivity

155

(2)

The religion in question

157

(1)

Social development

158

(3)

The Men

161

(5)

Conclusion

166

(1)

The Charismatic Movement and Secularization

167

(19)

Introduction

168

(1)

Renewal and restoration

168

(5)

The scale of the movement

173

(2)

Trajectory

175

(2)

The nature of the movement

177

(6)

Denominationalism

183

(1)

Conclusion

184

(2)

Discovering Religion: Mistakes of Method

186

(18)

Introduction

186

(1)

Questions and answers

187

(2)

Contentious cut-offs

189

(2)

Imperialistic interpretation

191

(1)

Implied trajectories

192

(1)

The bias of the starting assumption

192

(2)

Evasion and collusion

194

(5)

Discovery by definition

199

(4)

Conclusion

203

(1)

Religion in the United States

204

(25)

Introduction

204

(1)

Patterns of church adherence

205

(2)

Changes in the nature of US religion

207

(6)

The constraints on fundamentalism

213

(6)

Why the USA is different

219

(8)

Conclusion

227

(2)

Postmodernism and Religious Revival

229

(13)

Introduction

229

(1)

Postmodernism

229

(4)

The return of the gods?

233

(3)

Choice and belief

236

(4)

Conclusion

240

(2)

Notes

242

(6)

References

248

(16)

Index

264

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God is Dead Secularization in the West

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials