ABSTRACT
This chapter first discusses the concept of discourse and its different meanings. Secondly, it discusses what being critical' means in the context of discourse analysis. Then it explores the embeddedness of discourse and how that makes critical discourse analysis (CDA) different from other discursive approaches. The chapter examines CDA as a framework for a critical agenda in the sociology of religion. The starting point for a critical sociology of religion that takes discourse seriously is in two relatively recent developments in the modern world. The CDA approach to secularisation is, therefore, a modest approach. It provides refined tools for analysing the dynamics of public discourse on religion. Despite processes of secularisation, religious legitimations remain important in the modern world, and not just in the developing world. Critical discourse analysis draws from the Marxist tradition provides a powerful and yet mostly untapped source for analysing how this legitimation, reproduction or transformation is achieved.
