Religion in a Secular Society

It is very interesting to reflect on developments since the publication of this seminal book in 1966. Bryan Wilson (1926-2004) was born into a working-class family, left school at 13 but subsequently graduated in economics from the University of London and became Reader in Sociology and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1963. He was President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. This new edition is introduced by Steve Bruce, and provides an opportunity to consider the secularisation thesis and its development over the last 50 years. Starting from the historical situation that religious thinking, practices and institutions were once the very centre of the life of Western society, this situation has now radically changed, due in Wilson's view largely to increasing social diversity and individual liberty. Liberalism in turn encouraged tolerance, leading to more questioning of traditional thinking in theology, philosophy and science.

The book falls into four parts: the pattern of secularisation in England and elsewhere in Europe, its contrasting pattern in America, the religious response, and finally the sectarian and denominational alternative. Like many, Wilson was concerned about the loss of a common underpinning of morality and its privatisation and relativisation, an issue also addressed by Albert Schweitzer in his formulation of an ethic of reverence for life. The first appendix discusses criticisms of the secularisation thesis in historical, empirical and theoretical terms. The second appendix is particularly interesting in looking at the continuation of trends discussed by Wilson. One instance is the decline of baptism of England's infants by the Church of England from 55% in 1962 to 13% in 2008, and corresponding decline in weddings from 70% to around 30%. Church attendance has continued to decline, while the figures for alternative spirituality are still relatively low, although 15% of a 2013 poll said they were spiritual, with 8% religious and 10% saying they were both – this leaves 48% saying they were neither. The ordination of women had a dramatic effect between 1982 and 2010, with figures increasing from 5% to 21% in the Church of England, and even more dramatically in Methodism. Wilson did not anticipate the rise of the charismatic movement and the controversial issues arising from Muslim presence, especially since the turn-of-the-century. Bruce devotes considerable space to developments in the US, noting that the percentage of population disclaiming any religious affiliation rose from 16.1% to 22.8% between 2007 and 2014. Observing that academics frequently build their reputations by opposing the positions of their predecessors, he concludes that Wilson's secularisation model is still a pretty robust analysis.