About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198788371

ISBN-139780198788379

eBay Product ID (ePID)227668529

Product Key Features

Book TitleReligion in Secular Society : Fifty Years on

Number of Pages288 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicTheology, General, Sociology of Religion

Publication Year2016

GenreReligion, Social Science

AuthorBryan Wilson

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight13.9 Oz

Item Length8 in

Item Width5.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2016-936872

ReviewsiReligion in Secular Society outlined in detail some of the empirical evidence emerging in the 1960s that the Church of England was facing very serious decline, even though few senior figures in the Church at the time were prepared to acknowledge this publicly., "Bruce's editing and updating of Wilson's work proves helpful in increasing readability and better conveying the utility of Wilson's text for a younger audience. This new edition and its relevance for the US's current religious landscape couldn't be more timely. In Appendix 2 Bruce provides updates to what has changed since 1966, when Wilson's text was original published, in terms of politics, policy, modes of identification, economic factors, and societal changes. Overall, I have to commend Bruce for clarifying Wilson's position and providing much needed updates to this text. This new edition is one that should be kept in conversation as future religious landscape data becomes available."--Sean Dixon, Reading Religion "I welcome this re-edition of Bryan Wilson's work as an important marker in the sociology of religion"--Grace Davie, Sociology of Religion "Bruce's efforts to bring Wilson's sociological descriptions to a new audience are to be commended and fully considered." -- Expository Times, "Bruce's editing and updating of Wilson's work proves helpful in increasing readability and better conveying the utility of Wilson's text for a younger audience. This new edition and its relevance for the US's current religious landscape couldn't be more timely. In Appendix 2 Bruce provides updates to what has changed since 1966, when Wilson's text was original published, in terms of politics, policy, modes of identification, economic factors, and societal changes. Overall, I have to commend Bruce for clarifying Wilson's position and providing much needed updates to this text. This new edition is one that should be kept in conversation as future religious landscape data becomes available."--Sean Dixon, Reading Religion"I welcome this re-edition of Bryan Wilson's work as an important marker in the sociology of religion"--Grace Davie, Sociology of Religion"Bruce's efforts to bring Wilson's sociological descriptions to a new audience are to be commended and fully considered." -- Expository Times, "Bruce's editing and updating of Wilson's work proves helpful in increasing readability and better conveying the utility of Wilson's text for a younger audience. This new edition and its relevance for the US's current religious landscape couldn't be more timely. In Appendix 2 Bruce provides updates to what has changed since 1966, when Wilson's text was original published, in terms of politics, policy, modes of identification, economic factors, and societal changes. Overall, I have to commend Bruce for clarifying Wilson's position and providing much needed updates to this text. This new edition is one that should be kept in conversation as future religious landscape data becomes available."--Sean Dixon, Reading Religion "I welcome this re-edition of Bryan Wilson's work as an important marker in the sociology of religion"--Grace Davie, Sociology of Religion

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal260

Table Of ContentPart I The Pattern of Secularization1. Statistical Evidence of Secularization in England2. Denominationalism and Secularization3. The Social Context of Secularization4. Religion and Other Social Institutions5. Secularization and the Clerical ProfessionPart II Secularization in America6. Religion in America: A Contrasting Pattern7. Religion and Status: America and EnglandPart III The Religious Response8. The Clergy and Ecumenicalism9. The Ecumenical Implications of Christian Expansion10. Ecumenicalism and the DenominationsPart IV The Sectarian and Denominational Alternative11. The Origins and Functions of Sects12. Emerging Denominations and Persisting SectsConclusionBibliographyAppendix

SynopsisFifty years after its publication, Bryan Wilson's Religion in Secular Society (1966) remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization refers to the fact that religion has lost influence at the societal, the institutional, and the individual level. Individual secularization is about the loss of authority of the Churches to define what people should believe, practise and accept as moral principles guiding their lives. In other words, individual piety may still persist, however, if it develops independently of religious authorities, then it is an indication of individual secularization. Wilson stresses that the consequences of the process of societalization in modern societies and on this basis he formulated his thesis that secularization is linked to the decline of community and is a concomitant of societalization. Revised and updated, Steve Bruce builds on Wilson's work by noting the changes in religious culture of the UK and US, in an appendix on major changes since the 1960s. Bruce also provides a critical response to the core ideas of Religion in Secular Society., A reissue Religion in Secular Society (1966) by Bryan Wilson (1926-2004), a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford for thirty years and one of the leading sociologists of religion of the twentieth century., Fifty years after its publication, Bryan Wilson's Religion in Secular Society (1966) remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization refers to the fact that religion has lost influence at the societal, the institutional, and the individual level. Individual secularization is about the loss of authority of the Churches to define what people should believe, practise and accept as moral principles guiding their lives. In other words, individual piety may still persist, however, if it develops independently of religious authorities, then it is an indication of individual secularization. Wilson stresses that the consequences of the process of societalization in modern societies and on this basis he formulated his thesis that secularization is linked to the decline of community and is a concomitant of societalization. Revised and updated, Steve Bruce builds on Wilson's work by noting the changes in religious culture of the UK and US, in an appendix on major changes since the 1960s. Bruce also provides a critical response to the core ideas of Religion in Secular Society ., Fifty years after its publication, Bryan R. Wilson's Religion in Secular Society remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization (not to be confused with secularism) refers to the fact that background social changes-the growth of effective technologies, the rise of religious pluralism, the decline of the stable community, the separation of places of work and residence, and the growth of secular education, welfare, and social control-marginalize religion and religious officials. The state and the public sphere gradually become religiously neutral. Some people may remain religious but do so increasingly on their own terms. Wilson contrasts Europe, where people abandon historically influential churches, and the USA, where churches remain more popular because they perform popular secondary functions but lose much of their traditional religious content. He also considers the sectarian rejection of modernity. Steve Bruce updates Wilson's work with a summary of common criticisms and a review of changes in the nature and status of religion in the UK and USA since 1966. Book jacket.

LC Classification NumberBL65.P7