Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
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 societys social and civil fabric In The Meaning of Sunday Joel Thiessen ad- dresses these questions by weaving together narratives from interviews with members of both religious and secular communities. Exploring the meanings and motivations behind peoples reli- gious beliefs and behaviours the book features discussions with three groups of people those who attend religious services weekly those who attend services mainly for religious holidays and rites of passage and those who do not identify with any religious group and never attend reli- gious services. Interview responses show that religiosity levels correlate to ones personal experi- ences with the supernatural religious organiza- tions and social ties with those who either encourage or discourage religious identication belief or practice. Concluding that the demand for religion is waning regardless of what religious groups include in their programs Thiessen sug- gests that apart from some initial social and civic concern Canadian society may be just ne with- out it. Testing two dominant theories in the sociology of religion secularization and rational choice theory The Meaning of Sunday provides in- depth qualitative research on peoples lived reli- gion and contributes to a major ongoing debate concerning the nature and importance of religion in contemporary society. Joel Thiessen is associate professor of sociology at Ambrose University. 2 8 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 5 R E L I G I O U S S T U D I E S S O C I O L O G Y The Meaning of Sunday The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age joel thiessen Explaining varying levels of religiosity and church attendance in Canada. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S November 2015 978-0-7735-4627-1 32.95A CDN 32.95A US 22.99 paper 978-0-7735-4626-4 100.00S CDN 100.00S US 69.00 cloth7735- 4626-4 100.00S cloth 6 x 9 232pp Ebook available