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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 the meanings and motivations behind people’s religious 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 religious services. Interview responses show that religiosity levels correlate to one’s personal experiences with the supernatural, religious organizations, and social ties with those who either encourage or discourage religious identification, belief, or practice. Concluding that the demand for religion is waning regardless of what religious groups include in their programs, Thiessen suggests that, apart from some initial social and civic concern, Canadian society may be just fine without 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 people's "lived religion" and contributes to a major ongoing debate concerning the nature and importance of religion in contemporary society.

Religion and sociology --- Secularization --- Rational choice theory. --- Social choice --- Appropriation and impropriation --- Impropriation --- Church and state --- Religion and society --- Religious sociology --- Society and religion --- Sociology, Religious --- Sociology and religion --- Sociology of religion --- Sociology --- Law and legislation --- Canada.

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"The bottom line: Millennials are looking good. There'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 Bibby teams up with two GenX colleagues, Joel Thiessen and Monetta Bailey, to provide an up-to-date reading on how Millennials see the world--their values, joys, and concerns, their views of family, sexuality, spirituality, and other Canadians, and their hopes and expectations as they look to the future. Canada's much-criticized Millennials may well be a solid upgrade on previous generations--speaking well for the country's future."--

Generation Y.