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.
Author(s): Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Series: Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Religion
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 196
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Figures
Acknowledgments
Data Availability Statement
1. Millennial Religion, Socially Located
Outsider Representations
The Millennial Social Location
A Digital Age
Neoliberalism and Economic Precarity
Growing Pluralism Paired with Ongoing Systemic Racism and Inequalities
Individual Choice and Consumerism
Environmental Degradation and Climate Change
Further Urbanism and Cosmopolitanism
Expanded Higher Education
Emerging Adulthood as an Extended Life Stage
Religion among Millennials
The Impact of a Secular Age
Heading Down the Yellow #Lit Road ...
Notes
References
2. Different Approaches to Millennial Religion, Spirituality and Secularity
Identifying with and Belonging to Religion
Doing Religion
Believing Religion
Attitudes toward Religion
Toward a Latent Class Typology
The Religious Millennial
The Spiritual Seeker Millennial
The Cultural Believer Millennial
The Nonreligious Millennial
Notes
References
3. The Religious Millennial
Digital Religion among Millennials
Headed Left: Moving along the Political Spectrum
Experiencing the Cross-Pressures
Notes
References
4. The Spiritual Seeker Millennial
Conceptually Distinct, but Empirically Entwined
Nature and the Outdoors as Spiritual Resources
Millennials as Reverential Naturalism Forerunners?
Note
References
5. The Cultural Believer Millennial
The Importance of Cultural Ties
Stronger In-Group Identity Can Sometimes Also Mean Stronger Out-Group Sentiments
Cultural Catholics and Bill 21 in Québec
Anti-Group Sentiment in the 2019 MTS
Why Cultural Believers?
The Transitional Category
Notes
References
6. The Nonreligious Millennial
Defining and Measuring Something That Is Not
(Non)Religious Switching and Retention from Parent to Millennial
Intergenerational Disaffiliation
Strong Intergenerational Transmission of Parental Nonreligion
Different Ways of Being Nonreligious
Notes
References
7. Conclusion
Cross-Generational Continuity
Cross-Generational Difference
Comparing the United States and Canada
Looking Forward to Middle Adulthood
Looking to Raising Their Children
Note
References
Appendix A
Index
