«Bruce conceives of a delightful analogy for secularisation. He imagines a wave on a retreating tide every time the wave rises to meet the shore, it moves a little further out to sea. He argues that although religion experiences ebbs and flows, it is ultimately retreating as its transmission from one generation to the next weakens. It is the use of such powerful analogies, as well as the author having a masterful overview of the subject, that makes this an impressively clear and comprehensive book. It offers students an accessible guide to the study of secularisation and, as academic books go, it is a page-turner.»
Journal of Contemporary Religion
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. Les mer
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«Bruce conceives of a delightful analogy for secularisation. He imagines a wave on a retreating tide every time the wave rises to meet the shore, it moves a little further out to sea. He argues that although religion experiences ebbs and flows, it is ultimately retreating as its transmission from one generation to the next weakens. It is the use of such powerful analogies, as well as the author having a masterful overview of the subject, that makes this an impressively clear and comprehensive book. It offers students an accessible guide to the study of secularisation and, as academic books go, it is a page-turner.»
Journal of Contemporary Religion
«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