1st Edition
Religion, Spirituality and Secularity among Millennials The Generation Shaping American and Canadian Trends
This book explores the world of religion, spirituality and secularity among the Millennial generation in the United States and Canada, with a focus on the ways Millennials are doing (non)religion differently in their social lives compared with their parents and grandparents. It considers the influences exercised on the (non)religious and spiritual landscapes of young adults in North America by the digital age, precarious work, growing pluralism, extreme individualism, environmental crisis, advanced urbanism, expanded higher education, emerging adulthood, and a secular age. Based on extensive primary and secondary quantitative data, complemented with high-quality qualitative research, including interviews and focus groups, this book offers cross-national comparisons between the United States and Canada to highlight the impact of different social environments on the experience of religion, spirituality and secularity among the continent’s most numerous generation. As such, it will appeal to scholars of religion and sociology, with interests in religious and societal change as well as in religious practice among young adults.
1. Millennial Religion, Socially Located
2. Different Approaches to Millennial Religion, Spirituality and Secularity
3. The Religious Millennial
4. The Spiritual Seeker Millennial
5. The Cultural Believer Millennial
6. The Nonreligious Millennial
7. Conclusion
Biography
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She completed her DPhil (PhD equivalent) in sociology at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research interests include quantitative methods, sociology of religion, immigration and ethnicity as well as political sociology. Dr. Wilkins-Laflamme is co-author of None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada with New York University Press, and has also published 24 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters to date.
"Religion, Spirituality, and Secularity among Millennials offers a fascinating look at how Millennials from the US and Canada approach religion and spirituality. This book is particularly helpful to those ministering within religious denominations. Recognizing the growing number of nonreligious Millennials and understanding that this trend is expected to continue requires new strategies of churches if they want to be relevant in the lives of future generations."
- Bernadette McMasters Kime, Director of Worship and Sacraments, Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Reading Religion
