Fewer Canadians identify with a religion, believe in a god, or attend weekly religious services than in past decades. What explains higher and lower levels of religiosity? Is secularization a myth or reality? What impact does religiosity or secularity have on a society’s social and civil fabric?In The Meaning of Sunday, Joel Thiessen addresses these questions by weaving together narratives from interviews with members of both religious and secular communities. Exploring th...

The bottom line: Millennials are looking goodThere’s a lot of consternation about the Millennial generation — Canada’s youngest adults born since the mid-1980s and now reaching their thirties. But the speculation has not been accompanied by sound and comprehensive information — until now.Highly respected sociologist and veteran trend-tracker Reginald W. Bibby teams up with two Gen X colleagues, Joel Thiessen and Monetta Bailey, to provide an up-to-date read...

Compares secular attitudes characterizing “religious nones” in the United States and CanadaAlmost a quarter of American and Canadian adults are nonreligious, while teens and young adults are even less likely to identify religiously. None of the Above explores the growing phenomenon of “religious nones” in North America. Who are the religious nones? Why, and where, is this population growing?While there has been increased attention on secularism in ...

Congregations are story-telling communities. The stories they tell, which link a community's past, present, and future, can play an important role in whether a congregation flourishes or not. The Stories Congregations Tell features detailed case study research from seven dynamic Canadian congregations across theological traditions and geographical regions. Readers will encounter narratives that congregations tell themselves through a myriad of congregational and social transitions, account...

The church in Canada is in trouble. Media reports suggest that nine thousand churches are likely to close over the next ten years. The United Church of Canada reports closing a congregation a week. The Anglican Church of Canada anticipates closing its last congregation by 2040, and the Roman Catholic Church, Canada's largest religious denomination, reports having closed one-fifth of the tradition's 2,500 congregations. God Doesn't Live Here Anymore traces the story of the church in Canada ...