Church and Faith Trends.
July 2011 / Volume 4 / Issue 1.
ISSN 1920-0439.
by Reginald Bibby, Lethbridge: Project Canada Books, 2011. 256 pp. $24.95 reviewed by Joel Thiessen, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ambrose University College
Reginald Bibby, professor of sociology at the University of Lethbridge, is well known for his longitudinal research on the attitudes and behaviours of Canadian adult and teens with respect to religion and society. In his latest book, Beyond the Gods and Back: Religion’s Demise and Rise and Why It Matters (2011), Bibby builds on his previous survey findings, including his most recent 2005 adult and 2008 teen survey data, to offer a more precise account of Canadian religious and social values in an ever-changing information and global age. Bibby’s guiding thesis is that “when we look at the trend data for everyone – the involved and non-involved alike – what we see is a pattern of growing polarization . . . people are either involved or not involved in religious groups, either identify with traditions or do not identify with any, and are either theists or atheists” (pp. 46, 51).
To set the context for the polarization thesis, Bibby uses the opening two-and-a-half chapters to summarize his earlier developed secularization and revitalization arguments. Briefly, Canadian religious groups experienced significant declines in weekly attendance and religious authority following the 1950s, declines that Bibby attributes in large part to changing immigration patterns away from Western (and Christian) Europe, along with broader cultural and value shifts among baby boomers. These include shifts from dominance to diversity, from obligation to gratification, from deference to discernment, and from homes to careers (see Bibby 1987, 1993, 2006). Bibby (2002 and 2004) then surprised many when he offered the revitalization thesis based on 1995 and 2000 survey data. He was more optimistic about the fate of religion in Canada because of increases in weekly attendance patterns among teens and conservative Protestants, along with the slowing of numerical and percentile declines in weekly attendance in mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic settings. He also highlighted that many Canadians who do not currently attend religious services weekly say they would attend more frequently if only religious groups would adjust the way that they supply religion (e.g., livelier music and more relevant preaching).
Bibby’s polarization thesis, the focus of chapter three, incorporates elements of both the secularization and revitalization theses. Bibby builds his case around three common measurements of religiosity: religious service attendance, religious identification, and belief in God or a supernatural being. In each of these areas, Bibby compares his data from over thirty years and shows that Canadian teens and adults are increasingly polarized between the “religious” and “non-religious” ends of what he identifies as the “polarization continuum.” For example, in 1984, 23% of Canadian teens attended religious services on a weekly basis and 28% never attended religious services. In 2008, 21% attended weekly and 47% never attended (p. 45). In terms of religious identification among Canadians aged fifteen or older, 2001 Canadian census data reveal that 43% identify as Roman Catholic (compared with 45% in 1991), 29% as Protestant (compared with 35% in 1991), 6% with nonChristian religious traditions (compared with 4% in 1991), and 16% have “no religion” (compared with 12% in 1991). When asked if they believed in God or a higher power, 54% of teens responded, “Yes, I definitely do” in 1984, and 6% said, “No, I definitely do not.” In 2008, 37% stated, “Yes, I definitely do,” and 16% indicated, “No, I definitely do not” (p. 49).