The Meaning of Sunday: The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age

by Joel Thiessen

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.

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2015

Reviews

[Stephen Ring · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the recommended reading texts for Evan 5013 Evangelism and Mission in Contemporary Society which is a course I am taking in Winter 2021 through Acadia Divinity College, Wolfville NS.
Interesting sociological analysis of religious faith (Active affiliates, marginal affiliates, or religious nones) Sample size is small and Canadian thirty in each category all from Calgary. Many insightful discoveries with detailed sharing of sample life stories, which takes this beyond a statistical presentation.

[Merv Budd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well written, carefully articulated and very insightful. That is why I hated it! Joel Thiessen is a Canadian sociologist. His particular interest has to do with how people practice their faith or lack of faith – how is what they believe or disbelieve, lived out. In the book he divided the people who were interviewed into three main categories.

The first he calls “Active Affiliates” these are people who identify with a particular faith and actively practice that faith. The second category he calls “Marginal Affiliates”. These would be people who identify themselves by a specific faith but do not really practice that faith on a regular basis. It does not have much influence on their day to day life. These would be people who may come to church at Christmas and Easter more out of tradition than any other reason. The last group are “Religious Nones”. These are those people who do not identify with a particular religion. They are the ones who on census surveys, under the religious affiliation question, check the box that says “none”. This is the fastest growing religious category in Canada.

What made the book so good was how he could shine such a penetrating light on the issues facing the church in Canada with such clarity. What made me hate the book was how bleak the religious future of Canada appears to be.

I recommend this book to those who are not wanting to stick their head in the sand with regard to Canadian spirituality so that they can pray into the future of the Canadian church with some knowledge.