(1/3) Elina, undergrad assisting the IRCSF last term, summarizes the following from last November's talk: "Joel Thiessen discussed the concept of religious transmission ecosystems in his guest lecture...

Join us for Gary Adler's talk "How Local Government Officials Manage Interaction between Religion and State" on Thursday January 15th, 2026 from 7:30pm-9pm EST. To either attend the free event in person at St Jerome's or virtually online, register here: uwaterloo.ca/st-jeromes/e...

Join us for Gary Adler's talk "How Local Government Officials Manage Interaction between Religion and State" on Thursday January 15th, 2026 from 7:30pm-9pm EST. To either attend the free event in person at St Jerome's or virtually online, register here: uwaterloo.ca/st-jeromes/e...

Our Associate Director Galen Watts has a new book out with Stef Aupers and Dick Houtman titled "New Religious Movements and the Romantic Spirit of Modernity." Free e-copy downloads for the next 72 hours at: www.cambridge.org/core/element... Get your copy now!

Missed Kevin Flatt's launch of his new book "Secularization, Social Order, and World History: Toward a Global Perspective" at the IRCSF last week? Here's the recording of the event, for free viewing anytime: youtu.be/jfDP0x9HXjA

Amy, undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this term, highlights the following finding in this poster as particularly interesting from Joel Thiessen's talk last month at St. Jerome's University:

Still time to register for this free online event on Friday!

Join us for our last webinar of the autumn 2025 term: the launch of Kevin Flatt's new book "Secularization, Social Order, and World History: Toward a Global Perspective" on Friday December 12th @ 2pm EST. Register here to attend the free event: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Naz, undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this autumn, highlights in this reel some of her key takeaways from Christian Smith's webinar last month about the US religious landscape titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith."

Amy, undergrad student assisting the IRCSF this autumn, highlights in this poster some of her key takeaways from Christian Smith's webinar last month titled "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith." Watch Christian's IRCSF talk here: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4

Thanks to the winter storm, did you miss my lecture last night @stjeromesuni.bsky.social @ircsf.bsky.social? Lucky for you, the great tech folks had you covered! It was a pleasure to spend the evening discussing religious transmission in #Catholic contexts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-l...

Join us for our last webinar of the autumn 2025 term: the launch of Kevin Flatt's new book "Secularization, Social Order, and World History: Toward a Global Perspective" on Friday December 12th @ 2pm EST. Register here to attend the free event: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Still time to register for this free hybrid event on Thursday: www.ticketfi.com/event/6532/l...

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

Join us for our next free hybrid event with Joel Thiessen from Ambrose University titled “Planting Seeds: The Catholic Parish in the Religious Transmission Ecosystem.” 7:30pm-9pm EST on Nov. 27, 2025. Register to attend online or in-person the free event here: www.ticketfi.com/event/6532/l...

#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?"

Join us for our next free hybrid event with Joel Thiessen from Ambrose University titled “Planting Seeds: The Catholic Parish in the Religious Transmission Ecosystem.” 7:30pm-9pm EST on Nov. 27, 2025. Register to attend online or in-person the free event here: www.ticketfi.com/event/6532/l...

The recording from our webinar "Why #Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional #Faith" with Christian Smith from the University of Notre Dame, in conversation with Galen Watts from the University of Waterloo, is now available for free viewing on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/BVxCy5zacf4

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...

Still time to register for this free webinar, happening this Friday:

Our very own Associate Director Galen Watts is the guest on CBC Ideas' recent podcast episode titled "Why 'follow your heart' spirituality is actually religion": www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/...

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_...

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:

Featuring our very own Director Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, among many other researchers on the nonreligious in Canada.

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_...

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...

Missed Mervyn Horgan's talk yesterday "Some Theses on the Secular Sacred" at the IRCSF? Check out the recording here of the event, for free viewing anytime on our YouTube channel (@IRCSF): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZITB...

Check out this Broadview Magazine article titled "Christians are no longer the majority in Canada: surveys" by Julie McGonegal, featuring our very own Director Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme: broadview.org/canada-chris...

Still time to register for this free hybrid event!

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...

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_...

We've recorded and posted three videos in our Maple Spirit Pulse series. Have a look if you're interested in "Religious Populism," "Religious Schools," and/or "Canadian Ismailis and the Aga Khan." www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFNz...

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_...

In the new CBC Gem documentary "So You Want To Be a Muslim," director Hoda Elatawi opens a window onto a number of Canadians' personal journeys into Islam. A fascinating watch for anyone interested in lived Islam in the country. gem.cbc.ca/so-you-want-...

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...

We've got a new Maple Spirit Pulse video on Canadian Ismailis and the Aga Khan, with Dr. Alyshea Cummins, for your summer viewing: youtu.be/yHwqNYtNMIY

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...

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...

Looking for something to watch on the Canada Day long weekend? Check out our new Maple Spirit Pulse video on #religious schools, with Carol Ann MacGregor from St. Jerome's University: youtu.be/6krXX0wK3eA

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.”

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.