Why Baby Boomers Turned from Religion

Mocked, vilified, blamed, and significantly misunderstood - the 'Baby Boomers' are members of the generation of post-WWII babies who came of age in the 1960s. Parents of the 1940s and 1950s raised their Boomer children to be respectable church-attendees, and yet in some ways demonstrated an ambivalence that permitted their children to spurn religion and eventually to raise their own children to be the least religious generation ever. The Baby Boomers studied here, living in the UK and Canada, were the last generation to have been routinely baptised and taken regularly to mainstream, Anglican churches. So, what went wrong - or, perhaps, right? This study, based on in-depth interviews and compared to other studies and data, is the first to offer a sociological account of the sudden transition from religious parents to non-religious children and grandchildren, focusing exclusively on this generation of ex-Anglican Boomers.Now in their 60s and 70s, the Boomers featured here make sense of their lives and the world they helped create. They discuss how they continue to dis-believe in God yet have an easy relationship with ghosts, and how they did not, as theologians often claim, fall into an immoral self-centred abyss. They forged different practices and sites (whether in 'this world' or 'elsewhere') of meaning, morality, community, and transcendence. They also reveal here the values, practices, and beliefs they transmitted to the future generations, helping shape the non-religious identities of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

It has great relevance to Catholic readers. Pierre Hegy, Catholic Books Review
This book focuses exclusively on baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) from the UK and Canada who left the Anglican Church... The book concludes with a discussion of what those who left do believe. Choice
Taking a more ethnographic approach, Abby Day, in Why Baby Boomers Turned from Religion, focuses on the breakdown of intergenerational transmission as a key reason for religion's decline, at least in the west. Nova Religio
This book is of particular interest to scholars in sociology and religious studies and is an important contribution to advancing existing scholarship on secularisation, religious change, and decline amongst ex-Anglican Baby Boomers. It is easy to read, and its empirical data provide the reader with a sense of how religious decline can play out on the individual level. Joanna Malone, Religion Book Review

Abby Day, Professor in Race, Faith, and Culture, specialises in religion, critical race theory, and critical criminology. Following an award-winning MA and then PhD at Lancaster University, she researched and taught at the universities of Sussex and Kent. In 2013 she joined the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her most recent, highly acclaimed book, The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen: the Last Active Anglican Generation was the first to explore this silent, disappearing generation: the Baby Boomer mothers. Former chair of the BSA Sociology of Religion study group, she sits on numerous international funding and editorial boards.

Mocked, vilified, blamed, and significantly misunderstood - the 'Baby Boomers' are members of the generation of post-WWII babies who came of age in the 1960s. Parents of the 1940s and 1950s raised their Boomer children to be respectable church-attendees, and yet in some ways demonstrated an ambivalence that permitted their children to spurn religion and eventually to raise their own children to be the least religious generation ever. The Baby Boomers studied here,living in the UK and Canada, were the last generation to have been routinely baptised and taken regularly to mainstream, Anglican churches. So, what went wrong - or, perhaps, right? This study, based on in-depth interviews and compared to other studies and data, is the first to offer a sociologicalaccount of the sudden transition from religious parents to non-religious children and grandchildren, focusing exclusively on this generation of ex-Anglican Boomers.Now in their 60s and 70s, the Boomers featured here make sense of their lives and the world they helped create. They discuss how they continue to dis-believe in God yet have an easy relationship with ghosts, and how they did not, as theologians often claim, fall into an immoral self-centred abyss. They forged different practices and sites (whether in 'this world' or 'elsewhere') of meaning, morality, community, and transcendence. They also reveal here the values, practices, and beliefs theytransmitted to the future generations, helping shape the non-religious identities of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

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