In 2002, Reginald Bibby surprisingly asserted that a renaissance of religion is, or soon will be taking place in Canada. However, the assertion clashes with the dominant belief based largely on Bibby’s accumulated data about Canadians’ religious beliefs and practices, that Canada is becoming an increasingly secularized society. Based on forty-two in-depth interviews, this dissertation tests the “renaissance thesis” and improves our grasp of how Canadians subjectively understand their religious involvements by comparing the views of active religious affiliates (those who identify with a religious group and attend religious services nearly every week) and marginal religious affiliates (those who identify with a religious group and attend religious services primarily on Christmas or Easter, or for rites of passage such as weddings and funerals). What explains their higher and lower levels of religious involvement, what is the likelihood that marginal affiliates could eventually become active affiliates, and how does this understanding help us to assess the degree of religiosity or secularity in Canada? I argue that active and marginal affiliates are distinct mainly because of their different experiences with the supernatural or their local congregation, and the social influences that either encourage or discourage involvement in a religious group. These conclusions emerge from a close examination and testing of fundamental principles in Rational Choice Theory, a theory currently popular in the sociology of religion and in Bibby’s ongoing analysis of religion in Canada. Contrary to Bibby’s prediction, there is little reason to believe that marginal affiliates will eventually become active affiliates, regardless of changes to the supply of religion in Canada. In general, marginal affiliates appear content with their current levels of religiosity. As a result, I think it is likely that we will witness continued secularization at the individual level in Canada, which if proven correct, could strain Canada’s civic fabric in the future.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 1987. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-157).

Thesis (M. A.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. / Restricted until June 1999. Bibliography: leaves 191-203.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 1987. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-157).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 1977. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. xiii-xxx).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 1987. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-157).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-291). Also available on the Internet.

Background: People who are religiously unaffiliated (including self-identifying atheists and agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is "nothing in particular") made up 16.4% of the world's population in 2010. Unaffiliated populations have been growing in North America and Europe, leading some to expect that this group will grow as a share of the world's population. However, such forecasts overlook the impact of demographic factors, such as fertility and the large, aging unaffiliated population in Asia. Objective: We project the future size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations around the world. Methods: We use multistate cohort-component methods to project the size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations. Projection inputs such as religious composition, differential fertility, and age structure data, as well as religious switching patterns, are based on the best available census and survey data for each country. This research is based on an analysis of more than 2,500 data sources. Results: Taking demographic factors into account, we project that the unaffiliated will make up 13.2% of the world's population in 2050. The median age of religiously affiliated women is six years younger than unaffiliated women. The 2010-15 Total Fertility Rate for those with a religious affiliation is 2.59 children per woman, nearly a full child higher than the rate for the unaffiliated (1.65 children per woman). Conclusions: The religiously unaffiliated are projected to decline as a share of the world's population in the decades ahead because their net growth through religious switching will be more than offset by higher childbearing among the younger affiliated population.

Several theories have been used to capture the trend of a general decline in religiosity in Western Europe. The main assumption in most of these theories is that religiosity amongst the public has shifted towards a more private and individual form of belief that refrains from the traditional church-based belief. Contemporary Sweden is often singled out as a country where the secularization process has gone particularly far. The earliest results indicating a decline in church-oriented religiosity in Sweden goes back to 1955. The aim of this study is to investigate the Swedish public's religiosity and attitude towards the Church of Sweden's attempts at religious profiling in the early post-war period. The empirical data consists of a public opinion poll concerning the state-church and Christianity that was carried out in 1948. The result of the study indicates that only a minority of the Swedish public at the time subscribed to a church-based religiosity. Religion was increasingly seen as a private matter, a trend that becomes even clearer if one considers how the Swedes who participated in the opinion poll related to the Church of Sweden’s attempts to clarify its core beliefs.

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