A reading of God in Nederland 1996-2006 informs a critique of some intellectual routines
in sociology of religion. On the positive side, the book goes beyond a simplistic one-dimensional conception of "secularization" as declining Christian affiliations by adding
analyses of post-Christian spirituality and Christian religion's social and public
significance. The latter is however reduced to the mere study of attitudes, thus neglecting
real-life practices that may change in different directions. (Longitudinal) survey data
moreover have inherent shortcomings that seem insufficiently acknowledged. Rather than
addressing theoretically vital social and public significance of post-Christian spirituality,
the authors stick to reproducing conventional (yet flawed and sociologically naive) claims
about contemporary spirituality as privatized, fragmented, and individualized. It is finally
pointed out that with the steady decline of Christian religiosity it becomes increasingly
important to study worldviews of non-Christians and perhaps even wrap up sociology of
religion in less narrowly defined sociology of culture