Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

By Norris, Pippa and Ronald Inglehart
Cambridge University Press, 2004, Paperback, 348 pp., ISBN: 0521548721, $24.95

The belief that religion was dying became the conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century.

Seminal thinkers of the nineteenth century - Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud - all predicted that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the emergence of industrial society. During the last decade, however, the secularization thesis has experienced the most sustained challenge in its long history.

The traditional secularization thesis needs updating. Religion has not disappeared and is unlikely to do so. Nevertheless, the concept of secularization captures an important part of what is going on. This book develops a theory of secularization and existential security. Sacred and Secular is essential reading for anyone interested in comparative religion, sociology, public opinion, political behavior, political development, social psychology, international relations, and cultural change.