This article argues that a problem for the contemporary sociology of education is that it has operated within a "secularisation of consciousness paradigm". This has limited both the depth and the scope of its intellectual enquiries. Sociological analysis which elides a religious dimension not only presents an over-simplified view of social relations in "the Modern West", but it also fails to make an authentic engagement with many socio-cultural and educational situations internationally, where God is far from dead. The article suggests various ways forward for a reorientation of sociological writing and research. (Contains 12 notes.)