In the last two decades, religion in the West has undergone rapid and radical change of a kind unprecedented in our history. Traditional religious organizations, whether Catholic, Anglican, or Protestant, show signs of decay or even of collapse. Popular support has ebbed away from the established churches and the historic denominations, which for so long were the bulwarks of European culture, and which shaped the consciousness of Western man. The cultural implications of contemporary secularization are Bryan Wilson's primary focus in this book, but he also provides fresh insights into the widely diverse new religions of our time.