ABSTRACT
Rather than providing a review of all the evidence that counts for and against the two arguments, the aim of this chapter is to strike at the very heart of the idea of self-su ciency. In face of the evidence supporting the self-su ciency argument – most noticeably the collapse of Christianity and corresponding movement into the secular – the aim is pursued by arguing that secular sources of motivation are currently in operation. e transgressive thesis maintains that the secular – the very state of aairs that scholars like Durkheim and Bruce hold to be self-su cient – is frequently believed to be insu cient. e secular is not enough; not able to cope on its own. Accordingly, it generates transgression; movement out of itself to the beyond: quite often towards, or into, “New Age” inner-life spirituality.1
