by Paul Bramadat (Editor), Patricia O'Connell Killen (Editor), Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (Editor)
A research-driven volume examining religion, spirituality, and irreligion in the Pacific Northwest.
The Cascadia bioregion--British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon--has long been at the forefront of cultural shifts occurring throughout North America, particularly regarding religious institutions, ideas, and practices. Religion at the Edge explores the rise of religious "nones," the decline of mainstream Christian denominations, spiritual and environmental innovation, increasing religious pluralism, and the growth of smaller, more traditional faith groups in Cascadia. This volume is the first research-driven book to address religion, spirituality, and irreligion in the Pacific Northwest. Employing surveys, archival sources, interviews with faith and community leaders, and focus groups, contributors showcase a spectrum of adherents from Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i, new age, Indigenous, and irreligious communities.Author Biography
Paul Bramadat is professor and director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He is a coeditor of Urban Religious Events: Public Spirituality in Contested Spaces and Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond. Patricia O'Connell Killen is professor emerita and research fellow at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She is coeditor of The Future of Catholicism in America and Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme is associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. She is a coauthor of None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada.