Andrew Greeley possesses what is probably the sharpest tongue in American sociology…. [He] has for several years been busy sending out books and articles, most of them broadside attacks on prevailing views both inside and outside his own field.

Of late one of his favorite targets has been the view that religion is declining in contemporary society, a view now commonly called secularization theory. He has previously castigated its proponents in his book "Religion in the Year 2000."… ["Unsecular Man: The Persistence of Religion"] is mainly notable because Greeley now places his analysis of contemporary religion in a broader theoretical framework, coupling his attack on secularization theory with a general assault on the assumptions of most sociologists about modern society.

Greeley's central proposition is stated brashly on page 1: "The thesis of the book, bluntly, is that the basic human religious needs and the basic religious functions have not changed...