"The United States is in the midst of a religious revolution. Or, perhaps it is better to say a non-religious revolution. Around a quarter of US adults now say they have no religion. The great majority of these religious "nones" also say that they used to belong to a religion but no longer do. These are the nonverts: think "converts," but from having religion to having none. Even on the most conservative of estimates, there are currently about 59 million of them in the United States. Nonverts explores who they are, and why they joined the rising tide of the ex-religious. It draws on dozens of interviews, original analysis of high-quality survey data, and a wealth of cutting-edge studies, to present an entertaining and insightful exploration of America's ex-religious landscape. While American religion is not going to die out any time soon, ex-Christian America is a growing presence in national life. America's religious revolution is not just a religious revolution : it is catalyzing a profound social, cultural, moral, and political impact"--

When asked their religious identification, more people answer 'none' in the Pacific Northwest than in any other region of the United States. But this does not mean that the region's religious institutions are without power or that Northwesterners who do attend no place of worship are without spiritual commitments. With no dominant denomination, Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, adherents of Pacific Rim religious traditions, indigenous groups, spiritual environmentalists, and secularists must vie or sometimes must cooperate with each other to address the regions' pressing economic, environmental, and social issues. One cannot understand this complex region without understanding the fluid religious commitments of its inhabitants. And one cannot understand religion in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska without Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest.

Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: 9/10 draft of Burke article (Part One) Michael Kirke Studying irreligion in Ireland Tim O’Sullivan Religious decline in America James Bradshaw Mass Exodus revisited Margaret Hickey When a sense of mission declines: the lesson of the USA James Bradshaw Whence Secularity? Patrick Gorevan A dubious defence of the secularisation thesis Gavan Jennings

In recent years, we've seen an increase in the number of Christians who are "deconstructing" their faith, critically analyzing Christianity and finding that it falls short. Many end up leaving behind the beliefs and commitments they formerly held. While many have written on how to reverse this trend, Scot McKnight and Tommy Preson Phillips believe that rather than dismissing these concerns we need to listen more carefully. Deconstructors are uncovering serious weaknesses in today's church--a renewed fundamentalism, toxic leadership, and legalistic thinking among them. Utilizing the results of recent studies by Pew, Gallup, and others, McKnight and Phillips take a careful look at what deconstructors are really saying, seeking to better understand why many are shedding elements of the faith and church of their youth but also engaging in a reconstruction process, finding Jesus afresh. They are losing their religion, but not losing Jesus. Filled with stories of those who have walked the path of deconstruction without losing their faith, Invisible Jesus is a prophetic call to examine ourselves and discern if the faith we practice and the church we belong to is really representative of the Jesus we follow. Each chapter looks at a different topic and offers biblical reflections that call for us to not only better listen, but to change how we live out our faith as followers of Jesus today.

Explores the reasons for, and the realities of, modern atheism, especially through the interface of the Christian faith and modern-day culture. +

In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council with the prophecy that 'a new day is dawning on the Church, bathing her in radiant splendour'. Desiring 'to impart an ever increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful', the Council Fathers devoted particular attention to the laity, and set in motion a series of sweeping reforms. The most significant of these centred on refashioning the Church's liturgy—'the source and summit of the Christian life'—in order to make 'it pastorally efficacious to the fullest degree'. Over fifty years on, however, the statistics speak for themselves. In America, only 15% of cradle Catholics say that they attend Mass on a weekly basis; meanwhile, 35% no longer even tick the 'Catholic box' on surveys. In Britain, the signs are direr still. Of those raised Catholic, just 13% still attend Mass weekly, and 37% say they have 'no religion'. But is this all the fault of Vatican II, and its runaway reforms? Or are wider social, cultural, and moral forces primarily to blame? Catholicism is not the only Christian group to have suffered serious declines since the 1960s. If anything Catholics exhibit higher church attendance, and better retention, than most Protestant churches do. If Vatican II is not the cause of Catholicism's crisis, might it instead be the secret to its comparative success? Mass Exodus is the first serious historical and sociological study of Catholic lapsation and disaffiliation. Drawing on a wide range of theological, historical, and sociological sources, Stephen Bullivant offers a comparative study of secularization across two famously contrasting religious cultures: Britain and the USA.

Compares secular attitudes characterizing “religious nones” in the United States and Canada Almost a quarter of American and Canadian adults are nonreligious, while teens and young adults are even less likely to identify religiously. None of the Above explores the growing phenomenon of “religious nones” in North America. Who are the religious nones? Why, and where, is this population growing? While there has been increased attention on secularism in both Europe and the United States, little work to date has focused on Canada. Joel Thiessen and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme turn to survey and interview data to explore how a nonreligious identity impacts a variety of aspects of daily life in the US and Canada in sometimes similar and sometimes different ways, offering insights to illuminate societal and political trends. With numbers of nonreligious people even higher in Canada than in the US, some believe that secular currents to the north foreshadow what will happen in the US. None of the Above asserts that a growing divide between religious and nonreligious populations could engender a greater distance in moral and political values and behaviors. At once provocative and insightful, this book tackles questions of coexistence, religious tolerance, and spirituality, as American and Canadian society accelerate toward a more secular future.

Post-Christendom Studies publishes research on the nature of Christian identity and mission in the contexts of post-Christendom. Post-Christendom refers to places, both now and in the past, where Christianity was once a significant cultural presence, though not necessarily the dominant religion. Sometimes "Christendom" refers to the official link between church and state. The term "post-Christendom" is often associated with the rise of secularization, religious pluralism, and multiculturalism in western countries over the past sixty years. Our use of the term is broader than that however. Egypt for example can be considered a post-Christendom context. It was once a leading center of Christianity. "Christendom" moreover does not necessarily mean official public and dominant religion. For example, under Saddam Hussein, Christianity was probably a minority religion, but, for the most part, Christians were left alone. After America deposed Saddam, Christians began to flee because they became a persecuted minority. In that sense, post-Saddam Iraq is an experience of post-Christendom--it is a shift from a cultural context in which Christians have more or less freedom to exercise their faith to one where they are persecuted and/or marginalized for doing so.

Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit is a prequel to the writing and delivery of the sermon. The work of invention which includes the gathering of material is the primary focus of the book. The hard work of preaching takes place in the thinking, reading, and writing. The cross-disciplinary study provided here covers lessons learned by preachers and by novelists, poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians.