Canadian Church Attendance Rates
Presently, I am working on an empirical project with the
working title, "Further questions about a religious 'renaissance' in
Canada." This paper is a critical examination of Reginald Bibby's claim
that we might be seeing the renaissance of religion in Canada. In
particular, I am trying to figure out just what is going on in Canada
with regards to church attendance data. I'm curious what the latest
trends in church attendance show a leveling off or even an increase in
church-going in Canada or whether slow decline continues.
Gender, Race, Religion and Identity Politics
I am working with the Panel Study of American Religion,
a new data set on race and religion for presentation at the annual
meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion annual
meetings in October, 2009.
In this paper, co-authored with Associate Professor, Jen'nan Read, we
are exploring the effect that race and gender have on religious
attitudes and life choices. Undergirding this study is the conviction
that religion has a complex and varied expression among different
groups of people.
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Theology, Sexuality and Same-Sex Marriage
My ThM thesis is entitled "Homosexuality and the church:
challenging essentialist definition of gender through the work of Karl
Barth, Eugene Rogers, and John Zizioulas." The first chapter of my
thesis (on Rogers, Zizioulas, and a non-essentialist reading of Paul)
is forthcoming in the Conrad Grebel Review; chapter 2, on Karl Barth
and gender is under review. You may request a copy if you are interested. In this thesis I challenge the view that
the New Testament issues a timeless proscription of same-sex marriage.
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Survey of Mennonite Pastors
I have just received permission to conduct a comparative
analysis of a major survey of both Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren
pastors in Canada. This data was collected by Dieter Schoenwetter, a
researcher at the University of Manitoba
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Hauerwas, Yoder and Ecclesiological Engagement
At a fellowship at The Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria,
I critically appraised the ecclesiological vision of John Howard Yoder
and Stanley Hauerwas. My MDiv thesis, "Jesus Eh?: Atonement as abyssal
compassion, the hermeneutics of John D. Caputo, and the Canadian
context," borrowed heavily from the work of Caputo, Derrida, and
Anthony Bartlett. A condensed form this project was also published in
the Conrad Grebel Review and is available for download. |
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