Content area
Full Text
Steve Bruce is a leading figure in secularization theory. His most recent work Secular Beats Spiritual: The Westernization of the Easternization of the West straight-forwardly responds to a common critique of secularization theory which promulgates a "not-decline-just-change" (14) attitude. Simply, this attitude declares that Western spirituality is not waning so much as it is experimentally separating from traditional Christianity and flirting with various New Age and Eastern spiritual practices and beliefs. Bruce comes armed with his extensive research to emphatically declare, "False!"
Bruce employs ample evidence, ranging from the anecdotal to years-long quantitative studies, to gauge the trajectory and nuances of new spiritual movements. His critics must surely commend his research if not his conclusions. However, as with any important social analysis, definitions and scope are key. In this respect Bruce's own secular inclinations are most evident. He distinguishes between reli gion and spirituality with a nifty separation of exteriority and interiority, respec tively. Secularism, furthermore, is merely the absence of the religious and spiri tual (16). His definitions undoubtedly facilitate his case. Moreover, while Bruce commonly uses the term West he almost-exclusively focuses his analyses on the United Kingdom, while only occasionally mentioning the United States and entirely ignoring continental Europe. His rationale is that the UK is largely a secular state and therefore a better site for his analyses of religion's fate. Second, the UK is small enough to more accurately measure trends and "degrees of penetration" (vii). His presumption that the UK is a forerunner to the rest of the West...