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Religion General

God's Plenty

Religious Diversity in Kingston

by (author) William Closson James

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2011
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773538894
    Publish Date
    Sep 2011
    List Price
    $110.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773539259
    Publish Date
    Sep 2011
    List Price
    $40.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773586345
    Publish Date
    Sep 2011
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

God's Plenty examines the religious landscape of Kingston, Ontario, in the twenty-first century. The rich religious life of Kingston - a mid-sized city with a strong sense of its history and its status as a university town - is revealed in a narrative that integrates material from sociological and historical studies, websites, interviews, religious and literary scholarship, and personal experience. In Kingston, as in every Canadian city, downtown parishes and congregations have dwindled, disappeared, or moved to the suburbs. Attendance at mainline churches - and their political authority - has declined. Ethnic diversity has increased within Christian churches, while religious communities beyond Christianity and Judaism have grown. Faith groups have split along liberal and conservative lines, and the number of those claiming to have no religion - or to be spiritual but not religious - has increased. Yet amidst all this, religion continues to be evident in institutions and public life and important to the lives of many Canadians.

God's Plenty, a ground-breaking contribution to the study of religion in Canada and a model for future community-based research, is the first overview of the religious topography of a Canadian city, telling the story of various faith communities and adding to the study of religious diversity and multiculturalism.

About the author

William Closson James is a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, where he has been a member of the Department of Religious Studies for twenty-five years.

William Closson James' profile page