News

Book Announcements:

Janet Epp Buckingham. 2014. Fighting over God: A Legal and Political History of Religion Freedom in Canada. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

"Janet Epp Buckingham's research is impressively comprehensive and detailed. She is able to present facts and examples as narratives in both a geographically and historically complete way. The reader has the sense that all the 'legal moments' of religious life in Canada have been captured and collected here." Shauna Van Praagh, Faculty of Law, McGill University

http://www.mqup.ca/fighting-over-god-products-9780773543287.php?page_id=73&

Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse. 2014. Catch the Fire: Soaking Prayer and Charismatic Renewal. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.

"Although there has been an increase in the number of social scientists researching and writing about prayer, few attempt to journey into what might be called 'the heart of prayer.' Wilkinson (a sociologist) and Althouse (a theologian) have skillfully worked as a team to present one form of prayer (soaking prayer) within a particular historical context (a contemporary revival) and to explore its rituals, affective experiences, and psycho-social effects. In drawing from social science as well as theology they have captured the heart of soaking prayer." Margaret M. Poloma, University of Akron

http://www.niupress.niu.edu/niupress/scripts/book/bookResults.asp?ID=704

Global Pentecostal Movements,  written by Religion in Canada Institute Director, Michael Wilkinson, Published by Brill in 2012.

Religion and Global Politics written by RCI member, Paul S. Rowe was published by Oxford University Press Canada in March 2012. 

John Dyck, Paul Rowe, and Jens Zimmermann, eds., Politics and the Religious Imagination, London: Routledge, 2010. 

Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse, eds., Winds from the North: Canadian Contributions to the Pentecostal Movement, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2010.

BOOK NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPER

Michael Wilkinson is the editor of a volume on Pentecostalism in Canada that is now available in paper. The book, Canadian Penteocstalism: Transition and Transformation is published by McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009/2010.

Other RCI contributors include Bob Burkinshaw and Bruce Guenther. 

Bringing together a previously scattered and somewhat hidden literature, Canadian Pentecostalism provides the first comprehensive overview of the subject. The collection is broad in focus, examining classical Pentecostalism, charismatic movements in the Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant traditions, and neo-Pentecostalism. Contributing authors examine historical debates about the origins of the movement, the response of Pentecostalism to institutionalization and globalization, and the roles of women, aboriginals, and immigrants within the Canadian movement.

Jens Zimmermann and Brian Gregor are the editors of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Theology published by Indiana University Press. Zimmermann also organized the CCCU funded conference "Reason and Faith" held at Trinity Western University in October, 2009. Zimmermann presented the paper "Christian Humanism in Paul’s Letter to the Romans" at a conference on Religion and Humanism organized by the Catholic Academy in Hamburg, Germany in October 2009.


Research Awards:

Research Grant - Asian Christianity in Vancouver 
Michael Wilkinson, Professor of Sociology, received a grant to study the incidence of Asian Christianity in Vancouver (2012-13). The one year project was funded through the Religion and Diversity Project, a major collaborative research initiative of SSHRC.

Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research Initiative 
Michael Wilkinson is a co-applicant for the successful MCRI grant on Religious Diversity. The project is a 7 year Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) research initiative, hosted at the University of Ottawa. The project brings together 36 team members from 24 universities, with Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa, as the Project Director.  Details can be found here.

Flame of Love Award
Dr Michael Wilkinson (Sociology Department, Director, Religion in Canada Institute), has secured funding for a two-year project as part of the Templeton Foundation Flame of Love Award.  It is a collaborative and inter-disciplinary project with Dr Peter Althouse (Southeastern University, Florida) investigating the concept of 'godly love' in the Charismatic movement.  The project focuses on understanding the role of prayer within a network of Charismatic prayer centres in the USA. The total amount of the award is $150,000 USD.

Culture, Religion, and Integration among Young Adults of Immigrant Background in Canada 
Michael Wilkinson will provide leadership for the Vancouver site of this SSHRC funded project. The principal investigator is Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa. The three-year project will attempt to understand the role of religion and culture in the social integration of young adult immigrants in Canada.

RCI Director Awarded Prestigious Research Fellowship
RCI Director Michael Wilkinson, together with colleague Sam Reimer from Atlantic Baptist University, received a large grant, "Canadian Pentecostal Congregations: Healthy Churches Study” from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada - Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism to study evangelical churches in Canada.


RCI Launch

The Religion in Canada workshop launched the work of the Religion in Canada Institute. The launch is featured in a recent Trinity Western University press release and in an article in Canadian Christianity.