Secularization

• Very clear and engaging presentation of secularization theory.
• Explains how such features of modernization as increased individualism and religious diversity undermine the power, prestige and popularity of religion.
• Defends the secularization paradigm against a wide variety of recent criticisms using the best available evidence.
• Chapter structure guides reader through key areas of debate.

Readership: Students and scholars of religious studies and the sociology of religion; of the secularization paradigm; of Rational Choice Theory; of the history of religion in the twentieth century

Steve Bruce, Professor of Sociology, University of Aberdeen

"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

1: Describing Secularization
2: Explaining Secularization
3: Clarifying Secularization
4: Religion Outside the Churches
5: Contemporary Spirituality
6: Superstition
7: The Supply-side Alternative
8: Unexceptional America
9: Secularization Elsewhere
10: Will Conflict Reverse Secularization?