What the Secularization Paradigm really says

Abstract

Especially in the United States, the secularization paradigm has acquired in the sociology of religion a status similar tothat of functionalism in the 1970s: it is assumed that all right thinking people are against it. Novice scholars begin theirapprentice papers with ritual denunciations of it. I must say that, though I am often cited as an exemplar of the manifesterrors of the secularization approach, I rarely recognise my views in such summaries. What I want to do in this presentationis explain what I believe the secularization paradigm entails and clarify what it predicts for various forms of religion inthe western world. Obviously I will have to pass over much detail but my views are elaborated at length elsewhere (Bruce 1996; 2002).