About the lecture

In this lecture, we look at secularisation in the work of three contemporary sociologists of religion, focusing in particular on: (i) Steve Bruce, who has continued Wilson’s “strong” version of the secularisation thesis; (ii) Professor Davie herself, who supports Martin’s notion of secularisation as a context-specific process; (iii) Danièle Hervieu-Léger, who relates secularisation to the principles of the Enlightenment. We conclude by thinking about three events which have undermined certainty around secularisation and modernity in recent decades – the Iranian Revolution (1979), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), and the 9/11 attacks (2001).

About the lecturer

Professor Grace Davie is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Exeter. She is a leading sociologist of religion and has written widely on religion in the modern world. Her publications include Religion in Public Life: Levelling the Ground (2017), Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox (2015), and The Sociology of Religion: A Critical Agenda (2013).