PLEASE SHARE: The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion has immediate opportunity for new Executive Officer. This part-time, remote position pays $55k. Details in attachment. Apply here https://bit.ly/SSSR-2026-EO.

PLEASE SHARE: The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion has immediate opportunity for new Executive Officer. This part-time, remote position pays $55k. Details in attachment. Apply here https://bit.ly/SSSR-2026-EO.

NEW: The number of countries with high or very high social hostilities involving religion increased for the third year in a row https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/06/15/more-countries-had-elevated-levels-of-social-hostilities-involving-religion-in-2023/

NEW QUIZ: Where do you fit in the American political typology? Please share your results!

Political Typology 2026

Take our quiz to find out which one of our nine political typology groups is your best match.

pewresearch.org

Is a religious revival happening? Watch this video for answers from me, Kati Tervo-Niemelä (University of Eastern Finland), Joel Thiessen (Ambrose University), Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (University of Waterloo) & David Voas (University College London). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgPhZ01-O0

Wishful Thinking? Is There a Religious Revival?

Recent media stories in a number of countries suggest that there is a religious revival taking place, with increased worship attendance and young people expr...

youtube.com

Here's a great (free) training opportunity in survey research for undergrads & recent college grads this summer surveydatascience.isr.umich.edu/education/un...

Are enough births occurring to replace expected deaths? We introduce the “births observed / births needed” ratio as a simple indicator of demographic sustainability — showing why similar fertility rates can imply very different population futures. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...

When researchers asked LLMs whether they should switch between religions, LLMs tended to encourage becoming Catholic & shedding atheist & Jehovah's Witness identities. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22975

How Measurement Changes Can Exaggerate the Growth of Religious "Nones" no paywall: sociologicalscience.com/download/vol...

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

slate.com

Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.

Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 3mo ago

How will populations across the world change in the 21st century? 🔧 Explore for yourself with our new interactive tool!

Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.

Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 3mo ago

How will populations across the world change in the 21st century? 🔧 Explore for yourself with our new interactive tool!

Average Sunday service attendance in the Church of England 2019 - 690,000 2025 - 590,000

Church of England celebrates continued post-pandemic growth

The Church said it was encouraged by five years in a row of growth while acknowledging that growth, attendance and participation remain below pre-pandemic levels.

christiantoday.com

"citation count & journal impact factor reveals quantitative studies on secularization tend to be published in higher ranked journals & get more citations. Topics related to philosophy, Catholicism & law get fewer citations. The topic of science & religion is often found in lower ranked journals."

Valeria Rainero@valeriarainero.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Out now in @jssreligion.bsky.social with @ruudluijkx.bsky.social Using topic modeling on 1600+ academic articles, we provide a systematization of secularization literature and test whether researchers tend to study their own communities 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Out now in @jssreligion.bsky.social: Using Swedish full-population data, I show that exposure to religious pluralism through social ties is associated with a lower likelihood that parents baptize their child in the Church of Sweden 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Religious Pluralism and Social Networks: How Exposure to Religious Pluralism Through Social Ties Influences Baptism Decisions

A longstanding debate in the sociology of religion has focused on how religious pluralism affects religious participation. Existing research shows mixed findings, often relying on macro-level measure...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Register now for our upcoming webinar, co-hosted with the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, "Wishful Thinking? Is There a Religious Revival?," happening on Zoom on May 27 from 12:30pm-2pm ET. Register here: uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Reminds me a bit of Jonas Jonasson’s books like The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I loved all his books. I wonder what else is in this genre of audiobook.

Just finished the quirky, delightful Jonathon Fairfax audiobooks. If there was a fifth book, it would be my next listen. www.audible.com/pd/152887160...

The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. When Jonathon Fairfax accidentally helps a murderer bump off Sarah Morecambe, the secretary of a senior politician, he sets off a chain of events that aston...

audible.com

Newly published analysis of 2025 British Social Attitudes data provides no support for claims of a Quiet Revival of churchgoing in Britain. natcen.ac.uk/news/no-revi...

No revival in sight: Church attendance in Britain remains below pre-pandemic levels, new BSA data confirms | National Centre for Social Research

Latest findings from the British Social Attitudes survey.

natcen.ac.uk

"Opt-in polls have been shown to generate erroneous data for young adults and estimates of relatively rare behaviors."

Q&A: Do AI and bogus respondents threaten polling’s future?

Courtney Kennedy, vice president of methods and innovation, answers some common questions about the current polling landscape in the U.S.

pewresearch.org

Call for proposals: $10,000 seed grants for research about religion in the U.S. https://www.ssrc.org/programs/religion-and-the-public-sphere/innovation-in-religion-and-spirituality-seed-grants/ Great opportunity!

Innovation in Religion and Spirituality Seed Grants

The Religion and the Public Sphere program at the Social Science Research Council aims to foster research on the wider implications of new forms of religious and spiritual life. This program is offered with the support of the Luce Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

ssrc.org

The call for papers for the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR) conference in Buenos Aires (February 15-20, 2027) is open until June 10. I'm looking for submissions about religion & demography. https://conference-system.sisr-issr.org/conferences/conference-2027/#papers

I am honored to become (in August) the president-elect of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. sociologyofreligion.org

David Voas notes YouGov & Bible Society never published the full dataset from the (now retracted) Quiet Revival report. They declined invites for debate. https://www.iflscience.com/they-basically-refused-any-kind-of-public-debate-on-this-why-the-quiet-christian-revival-narrative-fell-apart-83293

I joined host Adam Fleming and fellow panelist Pat Allerton (better known as the ‘Portable Priest’) on BBC Radio 4’s 'Anti-Social' today to tackle a perennial but increasingly contentious question: Is Britain still a Christian country? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - AntiSocial

Peace talks for the culture wars.

bbc.co.uk

The USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture invites journalists to propose story ideas that capture the changing nature of American religion. The journalism fellowship will fund journalists to tell deeply reported stories in written or multimedia formats. dornsife.usc.edu/crcc/journal...

Journalism Fellowship for Stories for Change in American Religion Initiative - Center for Religion and Civic Culture

USC Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture

dornsife.usc.edu

Great initiative, sounds a little like @peercomjournal.bsky.social another excellent project which I highly recommend & encourage everyone to support!

Grumpy Scientist@grumpy-scientist.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Just found out about the new science journal "Stacks". The editorial board includes the legendary @elisabethbik.bsky.social. Publication costs are what they should be. Moreover, it has an interesting peer-review where reviewers interact, agree and vote for publications. stacksjournal.org

Just found out about the new science journal "Stacks". The editorial board includes the legendary @elisabethbik.bsky.social. Publication costs are what they should be. Moreover, it has an interesting peer-review where reviewers interact, agree and vote for publications. stacksjournal.org

In this podcast, Edward Awh says studies showing benefits of "brain training" tend not to replicate. He mentions app that could be used to track change in cognitive ability (e.g., dementia onset), like routine blood pressure readings used to track change. 🧪 news.uchicago.edu/big-brains-p...

NEW: More people have left Catholicism than joined it in 21 of the 24 countries we analyzed. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/23/catholicism-has-lost-people-to-religious-switching-in-many-countries-while-protestantism-has-gained-in-some/