Institute for Religion, Culture and Societal Futures
@ircsf.bsky.social
The IRCSF is Canada’s hub for social scientific and empirical research related to religion, spirituality, and new forms of communities of belief and practice. Based @stjeromesuni.bsky.social and @uwaterloo.ca
Joanne, undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this autumn, highlights here some of her key takeaways from Christian Smith's webinar earlier this month titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith."
Watch Christian's IRCSF talk here: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4
Watch Christian's IRCSF talk here: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4
November 24, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Joanne, undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this autumn, highlights here some of her key takeaways from Christian Smith's webinar earlier this month titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith."
Watch Christian's IRCSF talk here: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4
Watch Christian's IRCSF talk here: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4
#Christian #nationalism in #Canada and the #USA from mid-1990s to mid-2020s, based on International Social #Survey Programme data. 12% of #Canadians in 2023 say it's very or fairly important to be a Christian to be "truly" Canadian, compared with 36% in the USA in 2024 to be "truly" #American.
November 18, 2025 at 6:29 PM
#Christian #nationalism in #Canada and the #USA from mid-1990s to mid-2020s, based on International Social #Survey Programme data. 12% of #Canadians in 2023 say it's very or fairly important to be a Christian to be "truly" Canadian, compared with 36% in the USA in 2024 to be "truly" #American.
Elina, IRCSF student this autumn, highlights her key takeaways from our last webinar: "Christian Smith discussed his new book, and outlined new concepts — Cultural Zeitgeists and Cultural Mismatch — through which he explored the question: Why is religion becoming obsolete?"
November 17, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Elina, IRCSF student this autumn, highlights her key takeaways from our last webinar: "Christian Smith discussed his new book, and outlined new concepts — Cultural Zeitgeists and Cultural Mismatch — through which he explored the question: Why is religion becoming obsolete?"
Amy, an undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this term, focuses on the concept of the civil sphere as her key takeaway from Mervyn Horgan’s talk at the IRCSF last month:
November 7, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Amy, an undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this term, focuses on the concept of the civil sphere as her key takeaway from Mervyn Horgan’s talk at the IRCSF last month:
2024 Canadian data on (non)religious switching from Pew Research Center's report "Around the World, Many People are Leaving their Childhood Religions": www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/u...
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
2024 Canadian data on (non)religious switching from Pew Research Center's report "Around the World, Many People are Leaving their Childhood Religions": www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/u...
Joanne, one of the undergrad students assisting the IRCSF this term, created the following infographics on the sacred as a space of collectivization, based on Mervyn Horgan's talk at the IRCSF last month:
October 23, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Joanne, one of the undergrad students assisting the IRCSF this term, created the following infographics on the sacred as a space of collectivization, based on Mervyn Horgan's talk at the IRCSF last month:
Naz (undergrad student assisting the IRCSF), writes about last month’s IRCSF event: we heard from Mervyn Horgan, who took us into the world of Erving Goffman, helping us think about the everyday interactions we often take for granted, what Goffman called the Interaction Order.
October 17, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Naz (undergrad student assisting the IRCSF), writes about last month’s IRCSF event: we heard from Mervyn Horgan, who took us into the world of Erving Goffman, helping us think about the everyday interactions we often take for granted, what Goffman called the Interaction Order.
Join us for our next free webinar event with Christian Smith titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith" on Friday November 7th, 2025 @ 2pm EST. Register to attend the free event here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
October 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Join us for our next free webinar event with Christian Smith titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith" on Friday November 7th, 2025 @ 2pm EST. Register to attend the free event here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Elina, an undergrad student at the IRCSF, writes about last week's IRCSF event: Dr. Horgan discussed how the sacred is not confined to religious institutions: it persists (in altered forms) in secular realms, moral imaginaries, public rituals, and everyday encounters.
October 2, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Elina, an undergrad student at the IRCSF, writes about last week's IRCSF event: Dr. Horgan discussed how the sacred is not confined to religious institutions: it persists (in altered forms) in secular realms, moral imaginaries, public rituals, and everyday encounters.
Check out the CSSR - Canadian Society for the Study of Religion's upcoming webinar. Register here for the free event: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
September 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Check out the CSSR - Canadian Society for the Study of Religion's upcoming webinar. Register here for the free event: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Over 1/3 of the Canadian pop. has no religious affiliation. This Pew Research Center report looks into the spiritual beliefs and practices, as well as attitudes towards religion, among the religiously unaffiliated across the world, including here in Canada.
www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...
www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...
September 15, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Over 1/3 of the Canadian pop. has no religious affiliation. This Pew Research Center report looks into the spiritual beliefs and practices, as well as attitudes towards religion, among the religiously unaffiliated across the world, including here in Canada.
www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...
www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...
Eastern Europe is home to some of the most secular countries in the world, such as Estonia (81% of its pop is religiously unaffiliated according to EVS 2017) and Czechia (77%), as well as some very Christian ones (Poland and Ukraine for example).
September 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Eastern Europe is home to some of the most secular countries in the world, such as Estonia (81% of its pop is religiously unaffiliated according to EVS 2017) and Czechia (77%), as well as some very Christian ones (Poland and Ukraine for example).
We're back from the summer break with Fall 2025 events! First up is a talk on Sept. 24 @ 2:30pm EDT with Mervyn Horgan on current uses of Durkheim's concept of the sacred in sociology. Register for the free hybrid event here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
September 2, 2025 at 6:02 PM
We're back from the summer break with Fall 2025 events! First up is a talk on Sept. 24 @ 2:30pm EDT with Mervyn Horgan on current uses of Durkheim's concept of the sacred in sociology. Register for the free hybrid event here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Interested in knowing more about Canada's 129 publicly-funded Catholic hospitals and long-term care homes? Check out Amelie Barras' and Andrea Paras' new article "Canadian Catholic Health Care at the Nexus of Multiple Legal Regimes": resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
August 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Interested in knowing more about Canada's 129 publicly-funded Catholic hospitals and long-term care homes? Check out Amelie Barras' and Andrea Paras' new article "Canadian Catholic Health Care at the Nexus of Multiple Legal Regimes": resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
New 2025 ISSP Canada data on religion are now available. Below are rates of religious nones and monthly attenders in 2023 and 2025 between the comparable ISSP Canada general population surveys.
July 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
New 2025 ISSP Canada data on religion are now available. Below are rates of religious nones and monthly attenders in 2023 and 2025 between the comparable ISSP Canada general population surveys.
Junbo, a student working with us here at the IRCSF this summer, found the McCaffree, K., Saide, A., & Basmechi, F. (2025) "Sex Differences in #Secularity in #Iran" article in
@s-n-journal.bsky.social particularly interesting: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A83...
@s-n-journal.bsky.social particularly interesting: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A83...
July 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Junbo, a student working with us here at the IRCSF this summer, found the McCaffree, K., Saide, A., & Basmechi, F. (2025) "Sex Differences in #Secularity in #Iran" article in
@s-n-journal.bsky.social particularly interesting: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A83...
@s-n-journal.bsky.social particularly interesting: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A83...
Congrats to IRCSF research fellow Miray Philips from the University of Toronto for being selected as a Young Scholar in American Religion by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture!
July 7, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Congrats to IRCSF research fellow Miray Philips from the University of Toronto for being selected as a Young Scholar in American Religion by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture!
Hajer gives a review of McLean et al’s 2024 “Taking Alberta Back: Faith, Fuel, and Freedom on the Canadian Far Right” from the journal Religions. Find Hajer’s review in the photo below, and the full McLean et al. 2024 journal article at: www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15...
July 2, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Hajer gives a review of McLean et al’s 2024 “Taking Alberta Back: Faith, Fuel, and Freedom on the Canadian Far Right” from the journal Religions. Find Hajer’s review in the photo below, and the full McLean et al. 2024 journal article at: www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15...
Alternative and traditional medicine is often interwoven with spiritualities. Below are rates of support and use of alternative/folk/traditional medicine in countries around the globe, from the 2021 International Social Survey Programme.
June 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Alternative and traditional medicine is often interwoven with spiritualities. Below are rates of support and use of alternative/folk/traditional medicine in countries around the globe, from the 2021 International Social Survey Programme.
Attitudes towards State secularism (also known as laïcité) measures, by country, from 2023 Nonreligion in a Complex Future survey data. In this graph, rates of agreement with the statement ”I think the government should only fund secular schools and not faith-based schools.”
June 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Attitudes towards State secularism (also known as laïcité) measures, by country, from 2023 Nonreligion in a Complex Future survey data. In this graph, rates of agreement with the statement ”I think the government should only fund secular schools and not faith-based schools.”
Great work being done by one of our student fellows Jacob Legault-Leclair on religious socialization and transmission! Check out Jacob's new article in the journal Studies in Religion: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
June 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Great work being done by one of our student fellows Jacob Legault-Leclair on religious socialization and transmission! Check out Jacob's new article in the journal Studies in Religion: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Attitudes towards State secularism (also known as laïcité) measures, by country, from 2023 @nonreligioncf.bsky.social survey data.
June 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Attitudes towards State secularism (also known as laïcité) measures, by country, from 2023 @nonreligioncf.bsky.social survey data.
Rates of the religiously unaffiliated were very similar between Canadian 15-24 & 25-34 year-olds in 1985...they still are in 2022 as well, even though much higher now than in 1985, and the highest of any age group in 2022 at around 50%.
June 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Rates of the religiously unaffiliated were very similar between Canadian 15-24 & 25-34 year-olds in 1985...they still are in 2022 as well, even though much higher now than in 1985, and the highest of any age group in 2022 at around 50%.
Looking for something to watch at the beach this summer? Catch up on the recordings of all our great webinars and seminars from this past Fall 2024 and Winter 2025! All available for free viewing anytime on our YouTube channel @IRCSF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Stq...
June 4, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Looking for something to watch at the beach this summer? Catch up on the recordings of all our great webinars and seminars from this past Fall 2024 and Winter 2025! All available for free viewing anytime on our YouTube channel @IRCSF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Stq...