This research explored whether Statistics Canada’s religiosity index is an adequate measurement tool to capture the degree of young adults’ (aged 15-29) religious engagement in contemporary Canada. The impact of the agency’s four religiosity dimensions (affiliation, attendance, importance and private practice) on the index by age group was analyzed using Cycle 25 of the General Social Survey. Next, quantitative data was collected using a cross-sectional web-based survey of young adults (aged 18-29) in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (N=634). This survey examined the differences in representation of religious engagement based on either traditional or personalized dimensions. In conclusion, my findings suggest that Statistics Canada’s religiosity index does not measure religiosity consistently across age groups, nor does it assess important personalized dimensions of young adults’ religiosities. Consequently, the current religiosity index provides only a partial understanding of young adults’ degree of religious engagement and should be considered for revision.

This work has for subject the examination of concrete mediations through which certain members of the clergy were conducted to live theirs work as directly political and socially engaged, taking as analysis s reference an empirical space represented by Maranhão, from the second half of the twentieth century. It investigates, in particular, the practical contexts, the institutional settings and both individual and collective logic that favored the transgression of rules and transits between spheres of activity, promoted by certain agents who challenged the definitions and legitimate limits of Catholic religious action. The choice of an institutional component distant to Rome and centers of national decision of the Catholic Church served the purpose of analyzing, below a located, procedural and microscopic perspective, the concrete and contingent arrangements of transaction between religious and political phenomena, noting the historical, social and institutional settings, including individual itineraries and discourses produced by a small fraction of the ecclesial métier that defied most noticeably those boundaries. The advancement in the reconstitution of the processes of institutional transformation of the Church through this small component objectified then led to identify three important dimensions of analysis to make intelligible the politicization of religious engagement of priests in theirs context of possibility. In the first, to reconstitute the genesis of this peripheral component of the Church, it was analyzed how this church was continually being shaped by social relations established in its territory, the evolution of effective and its institutional framework, as well as its growing links to new Catholic guidelines for pastoral, doctrinal and / or liturgical matter (first chapter). Moreover, analyzing various factors of renewal institutional of Catholicism in international, national and regional level, the second level of observation places the accent either on the effects of redefining the imposed boundaries that separate the clergy from the laity over the management of religious property, much about the conditions that led the church to become a powerful moral and organizational supporter of mobilizations and social movements in Maranhão (second chapter). On a third level of analysis, this work focuses on the exploration of the various effects of closer ties of the Catholic Church of Maranhão to the transnational networks, especially through the denationalization of clerical effective charge of taking care of their reproduction (corresponding to the third and fourth chapters). In particular, in this plan explores the effects of globalization on the development of new forms of exercising religious role in missionary territory in question, as the understanding of their mission as a place of interpenetration stories, of identity restoration and reinvention established practice. This study thus highlights the diversity of conditions by which some religious they felt allowed both assume the role of spokesmen and interpreters of their professional environment, as to play the role of intermediaries primordial of discontent of the population and values and ideals that transcended his metier. / O presente trabalho tem por objeto o exame das mediações concretas por meio das quais certos membros do corpo clerical foram conduzidos a viver sua atividade profissional como diretamente política e socialmente engajada, tendo como referencial de análise um espaço empírico representado pelo Maranhão, a partir da segunda metade do século XX. Trata-se de investigar, mais particularmente, os contextos práticos, as configurações institucionais e as lógicas simultaneamente coletivas e individuais que favoreceram a transgressão de regras e os trânsitos de lógicas entre esferas de atividade, promovidos por determinados agentes que desafiaram as definições e os limites legítimos da ação religiosa católica. A escolha de um componente institucional distante de Roma e dos centros de decisão nacional da Igreja católica serviu então ao propósito de analisar, de uma perspectiva processual, localizada e microscópica, as modalidades concretas e contingentes de transação entre os fenômenos religiosos e políticos, atentando para as configurações históricas, sociais e institucionais particulares e, inclusive, os itinerários individuais e os discursos produzidos por uma pequena fração do métier eclesial que afrontou mais visivelmente essas fronteiras. O avanço na reconstituição dos processos de transformação institucional da Igreja através desse pequeno componente objetivado levou então a identificar três dimensões de análise importantes para tornar inteligível a politização do engajamento religioso de padres em seu contexto de possibilidade. Na primeira, ao reconstituir a gênese desse componente periférico da Igreja, tratou-se de analisar como essa Igreja foi sendo moldada continuamente pelas relações sociais estabelecidas em seu território, pela evolução dos efetivos e do seu arcabouço institucional, bem como pela sua crescente vinculação às novas orientações católicas em matéria pastoral, doutrinária e/ou litúrgica (primeiro capítulo). Por outro lado, analisando diversos fatores de renovação institucional do catolicismo em nível internacional, nacional e regional, o segundo nível de observação coloca o acento tanto sobre os efeitos da redefinição das fronteiras instituídas que separavam o clero dos leigos sobre a gestão dos bens religiosos, quanto sobre as condições que levaram a Igreja a se tornar um poderoso apoiador moral e organizacional de mobilizações e movimentos sociais no Maranhão (segundo capítulo). Em um terceiro nível de análise, o trabalho se concentra sobre a exploração dos efeitos diversos do estreitamento de vínculos da Igreja maranhense às redes transnacionais católicas, sobretudo através da desnacionalização dos efetivos clericais encarregados de cuidar da sua reprodução (correspondente ao terceiro e quarto capítulos). Em particular, nesse plano exploram-se tanto os efeitos dessa internacionalização sobre a valorização de novas formas de exercício do papel religioso no território missionário em pauta, quanto a compreensão da própria missão como um lugar de interpenetração de histórias, de recomposição identitária e de reinvenção prática do instituído. Esse estudo evidencia, assim, a diversidade de condições por meio das quais alguns religiosos se sentiram autorizados tanto a assumir o papel de porta-vozes e intérpretes do seu meio profissional, quanto a desempenhar o papel de intermediários primordiais de descontentamentos da população e de valores e ideais que transcendiam o seu metier.

The purpose of this study is to depict the entrance process into the Pentecostal church and compare it with three different models of the entrance process into religious organizations too se if there are any similarities. The purpose is also to see if there are any similarities between the informants in their entrance process, and which strengths and weaknesses the three models have, when utilized on the entrance process into the Pentecostal church. The results indicates that there are some similarities between the informant´s entrance process into the Pentecostal church, such as the contact the informants have with the Pentecostal church during their entrance process and the context the informant´s was situated in. There are also some similarities before joining, such as the engagement in religion and the longing after a community. The similarities with the three models indicate that they show most similarities with the model that John R. Rambo has created over the entrance process. The strength and weaknesses of the three models are varying, with all three models showing some strenghts and weaknesses. Some steps in the models could also be considered neutral, when compared to the entrance process into the Pentecostal church. One factor that contributes to the weaknesses of the models is the empiric material that the models are based on. / <p>Inga anmärkningar</p>