In Leaving Christianity: Changing Allegiances in Canada Since 1945, Brian Clark (Toronto School of Theology and Emmanuel College) and Stuart Macdonald (Toronto School of Theology and Knox College) have provided a vivid empirical account of the current trajectory of Christian communities in Canada. The story they tell is quite grim, at least if one is personally or professionally invested in the historical expressions of these communities. Christian readers interested in finding a solution to the declining levels of participation in (most) Christian denominations should look elsewhere. Although the authors are themselves embedded within Christian institutions, they are emphatic that they are not suggesting a religious revival, nor are they lamenting the loss of the good old days. They do express some concern about the impact on Canadian society of the decline of institutions that have been the loci for so many social services, but this (in my view, rightly) worries many non-Christians, too.

Clark and Macdonald provide a detailed exposition of the data available at the time—based mostly on Statistics Canada Census and National Household Survey data as well as some church documentation—arranged into approximately ninety tables (some spanning two pages). This book is the most comprehensive account available of the relatively recent history of the changes we have seen in Canadian Christianity in the last seventy years. That word—recent—is important, as the authors argue that the data does not suggest a long-term linear decline. Instead, the complex changes associated with the 1960s initiated or accelerated (the situation differs depending on the province and denomination) a tectonic shift in Canadian society that led to rapid declines in most churches. The declines were, of course, uneven, with Roman Catholics (especially in Quebec) sustaining fairly robust levels of identification for a few decades after the cultural revolutions of the 1960s (due in large part, predictably, to the symbolic value of Catholic identity in that province as well as less individualistic understandings of religion itself); as well, conservative Protestantism also seemed to be faring relatively well.

However, the most recent data they assessed suggests that except in a few cases, most groups appear to be facing declines, ranging in levels of severity, rapidity, and novelty. They are careful to trace the many decades (indeed, centuries) of Christianity in Canada, during which sociologists and historians observe the existence of a strong consensus around the moral and political value of Christianity. Moreover, Clark and Macdonald also seek to demonstrate the ways in which broader demographic shifts (most interestingly, with respect to liberalization, urbanization, pluralization, and immigration) in Canada as a whole affected the state and status of Christianity. Even though some of the most recent declines within some Canadian churches were predictable consequences of the end of the baby boom, the book provides a fairly nuanced account of why many still (incorrectly) assume both that the church has struggled through long-term decline and that some denominations will continue to be exceptions to the overall trends.

The authors have mustered a sometimes-dizzying amount and array of data in four chapters that address (generally) declining attendance, involvement and identification among mainstream Protestants, other Protestants, and Roman Catholics, and the concomitant massive growth among those (about a quarter of the population in 2011) with no religion.

Clark and Macdonald are far more interested in painstakingly presenting this data than they are in engaging in a sustained theoretical analysis. Indeed, they do not begin to “take stock of the magnitude of the changes that we have described” until page two hundred of a two hundred forty-nine page text (and even at that point they do not stray far from the empirical data). Their systematic and sober description is so valuable for scholars of Canadian religion, history, and society, though, that it is possible to forgive them for not reflecting more deeply on the links between their findings and the broader theoretical debates related to modernization, feminism, bureaucratization, individualism, and secularization. All of those issues are there, though often sotto voce.

Some colleagues will wonder why many of the tables are based on 2001 and 2011 data (which will seem out of date for those not familiar with the field or with how long it takes to move this sort of book through a press); why the authors accept Statistics Canada's categorization of Unitarians as Christians (even a brief visit to a Unitarian church would confirm that that has not been an accurate description for many decades); why the broad cultural and spiritual revitalization among Canada's Indigenous communities is not addressed as a challenge, especially for many denominations that were involved for decades in residential schools; and why the revolutions in sexual and gender identities, not to mention the rise of a particular kind of neo-liberalism are not addressed in much detail (even though they were correlated closely with the changes they are charting). Still, these are mostly quibbles about a very solid piece of scholarship that will and should certainly be a touchstone in the study of religion in Canada for many years to come.