What do you think?
Rate this book
Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory 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.
Hardcover
First published January 27, 2011
5 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Steve Bruce
52 books11 followersSteve Bruce (born 1951), Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen since 1991, elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005, he has written extensively on the nature of religion in the modern world and on the links between religion and politics.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 13, 2015
This book considers and defends the proposition that western civilization has become increasingly secularistic, and that it has been on this downward spiral for many centuries now. It also (all too briefly) considers and proposes a few reasons why, and the causes of, this western secularization. And perhaps most insightfully, it (again, briefly) considers how churches have responded to this ongoing shift away from religious belief and practice in society. I found the book fascinating, insightful, and well worth the time/effort/money to read. But, at the same time, he spent too much time proving his thesis against detractors and quoting statistics to deserve a 5-star rating as an absolute 'must-read'. More analysis is needed, as this book simply seeks to prove that society is becoming secular, while just briefly hinting at the reasons for this, results of this, and reactions to this.
To whet your appetite for this excellent resource, here are a few statements that I found particularly insightful. Some of these are quotes, some is a paraphrase, and some are the implications of his words put into my own words:
*As religion loses its social power it becomes harder for each generation to socialize its children in the faith.
*Churches have responded to secularization by becoming more liberal in their doctrine and ecumenical in church relations.
*The charismatic movement seems to be a conservative reaction to liberal Christianity, but in reality, it makes the change towards liberalism easier by providing easy steps away from old orthodoxy.
*The rationalizing of ethics, codes, laws; that God could not be tricked, bribed, manipulated, which was a feature of both the pagan religions and Roman Catholicism --when all of this fell in the Reformation, it made it possible for ethics to be detached from belief in the supernatural, creating space for secular alternatives.
*The protestant work-ethic, capitalism, and the subsequent prosperity, serves to weaken religious sentiment.
*The Reformation inadvertently encouraged individualism, egalitarianism, and diversity (which calls religious certainty into question), leading to a shift towards a secular, liberal democracy.
*Technology secularizes as it reduces the occasions on which people have recourse to religion. Farmers don't need to pray to keep the bugs off their crops if an effective pesticide is invented. And even when they still pray for the pesticide to work, seeing the success of their impious neighbors' crops weakens that connection.
*The precise way in which they combine is complex, but individualism, egalitarianism, liberal democracy, and science/technology all contribute to a general sense of self-importance, a freedom from fate, which makes the traditional authoritarian dogmatic religion, with its vengeful God, generally unpalatable to modern sensibilities.
*Individualism is at the heart and is central to secularization; the autonomy of the individual in our society makes secularization irreversible.
*As recent as the 1930s, people would identify themselves as 'Christian' if they were considered ethical, moral, honest, and respectable. The author suspects that this is what people mean today when they identify themselves as 'spiritual.' Yet, even still, the term 'spiritual' is far less focussed on behavior, but more on the sensitivity of their personality.
*Belief in hell declined faster than belief in heaven in our society. This shift was partly due to the sense of our mastery over fate, which is produced by technology, improved health, increased longevity, and increased prosperity, not to mention privatization/individualism/autonomy.
*As religion shrinks in importance, people become increasingly indifferent to the particularities of religion while remaining vaguely benevolent to religion in the abstract.
*Increased individual liberty is the root of secularization [the author repeatedly comes back to this point]. For some, this liberty has taken the form of abandoning organized religion altogether. For others, it's expressed in a highly selective attitude to the once hegemonic precepts of the faith. This has been evident in liberalism since the 1900s, but evident in conservative circles since the 1960s in how churches have adapted to secularization by becoming less dogmatic and authoritarian.
*Churches in Europe have become less and less popular, while churches in the US have become less and less religious. [A point repeated all throughout the book.] Europeans secularized by abandoning their churches, but Americans have just secularized their churches.
*American religion particularly (in contrast to Europe) has diminished the supernatural as it has been psychologized or subjectivized. The purpose of religion in the US used to be to serve and glorify God; now it has shifted toward purposes of personal growth. Older polls asking 'why do you go to church?' used to see the dominant response as 'because God requires it.' Now, the dominant response is 'because it is pleasurable.'
*Religion in America is more internal than external, more individual than institutional, more experiential than cerebral, more private than public.
To whet your appetite for this excellent resource, here are a few statements that I found particularly insightful. Some of these are quotes, some is a paraphrase, and some are the implications of his words put into my own words:
*As religion loses its social power it becomes harder for each generation to socialize its children in the faith.
*Churches have responded to secularization by becoming more liberal in their doctrine and ecumenical in church relations.
*The charismatic movement seems to be a conservative reaction to liberal Christianity, but in reality, it makes the change towards liberalism easier by providing easy steps away from old orthodoxy.
*The rationalizing of ethics, codes, laws; that God could not be tricked, bribed, manipulated, which was a feature of both the pagan religions and Roman Catholicism --when all of this fell in the Reformation, it made it possible for ethics to be detached from belief in the supernatural, creating space for secular alternatives.
*The protestant work-ethic, capitalism, and the subsequent prosperity, serves to weaken religious sentiment.
*The Reformation inadvertently encouraged individualism, egalitarianism, and diversity (which calls religious certainty into question), leading to a shift towards a secular, liberal democracy.
*Technology secularizes as it reduces the occasions on which people have recourse to religion. Farmers don't need to pray to keep the bugs off their crops if an effective pesticide is invented. And even when they still pray for the pesticide to work, seeing the success of their impious neighbors' crops weakens that connection.
*The precise way in which they combine is complex, but individualism, egalitarianism, liberal democracy, and science/technology all contribute to a general sense of self-importance, a freedom from fate, which makes the traditional authoritarian dogmatic religion, with its vengeful God, generally unpalatable to modern sensibilities.
*Individualism is at the heart and is central to secularization; the autonomy of the individual in our society makes secularization irreversible.
*As recent as the 1930s, people would identify themselves as 'Christian' if they were considered ethical, moral, honest, and respectable. The author suspects that this is what people mean today when they identify themselves as 'spiritual.' Yet, even still, the term 'spiritual' is far less focussed on behavior, but more on the sensitivity of their personality.
*Belief in hell declined faster than belief in heaven in our society. This shift was partly due to the sense of our mastery over fate, which is produced by technology, improved health, increased longevity, and increased prosperity, not to mention privatization/individualism/autonomy.
*As religion shrinks in importance, people become increasingly indifferent to the particularities of religion while remaining vaguely benevolent to religion in the abstract.
*Increased individual liberty is the root of secularization [the author repeatedly comes back to this point]. For some, this liberty has taken the form of abandoning organized religion altogether. For others, it's expressed in a highly selective attitude to the once hegemonic precepts of the faith. This has been evident in liberalism since the 1900s, but evident in conservative circles since the 1960s in how churches have adapted to secularization by becoming less dogmatic and authoritarian.
*Churches in Europe have become less and less popular, while churches in the US have become less and less religious. [A point repeated all throughout the book.] Europeans secularized by abandoning their churches, but Americans have just secularized their churches.
*American religion particularly (in contrast to Europe) has diminished the supernatural as it has been psychologized or subjectivized. The purpose of religion in the US used to be to serve and glorify God; now it has shifted toward purposes of personal growth. Older polls asking 'why do you go to church?' used to see the dominant response as 'because God requires it.' Now, the dominant response is 'because it is pleasurable.'
*Religion in America is more internal than external, more individual than institutional, more experiential than cerebral, more private than public.
April 6, 2012
A really good book. Sets the idea of the secularization paradigm in the first two chapters and then picks apart the critiques of the paradigm in the following chapters. Well written, informal, even funny at times, yet always razor sharp in analysis, this is the place to start if you're into the, well, paradigmatic discussion in the sociology of religion.
February 19, 2020
I read this as a tired sociology student, and from this perspective, it was well-explained and well-structured; I distinctively felt that the clear progress of reasoning and conclusive paragraphs in each chapter was quite student-friendly. The book was also an interesting glimpse into the world of a social scientist, striving for objectivity and rationality in seeing social phenomena (which personally turned me off from becoming a social scientist. The rigidity felt kind of boring and working with buckets of statistics horrifyingly dry). It's a good extended sociological essay, but if you're (like me) not personally invested in paradigms describing social state of religion in modern world, the depth of academic nuances is bound to bore.
February 16, 2022
One part description of secularization, one part explanation of secularism, and 8 parts defending secularism against the critics. I would have liked for a lot more spent on explaining secularism, but that isn't what this book is trying to do.
January 7, 2025
An overview of Secularization
A good point to understand the difference between secularization and secularism besides the impact that religions as ideology and the lack of it had done so far in society.
A good point to understand the difference between secularization and secularism besides the impact that religions as ideology and the lack of it had done so far in society.
March 15, 2020
he was actually quite funny so 4/5. made my week slightly more bearable
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews