About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about changes to modernity in the late-twentieth century, and the impacts that they had on religion, focusing in particular on: (i) the decline of large industrial centres and “de-urbanisation” as manufacturing became less dominant and digital communications grew; (ii) parallel shifts in thought, as the certainty and confidence of the Enlightenment declined and people began to reject narratives of progress and scientific truth; (iii) different religious responses to this, as some people adopted more personalised forms of spirituality and others sought to recapture certainty through fundamentalism; (iv) whether the terms “late modernity” and “postmodernity” are useful ways to describe these changes.

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).