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26 January 2016

Understanding Consecrated Life in Canada

Understanding Consecrated Life in Canada

This book presents the main talks given at the Conference on the State of Consecrated Life in Canada, held on January 2013 at Concordia University, in Montreal. Understanding Consecrated Life -Critical Essays on Contemporary Trends by Jason Zuidema, editor, is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

“The story of the consecrated life in Canada since the 1960s should be about much more than numerical decline. Although the falling numbers are significant among Catholic religious in communities that pre-date Vatican II, many communities continue to show stability and even growth. This book provides nuance to that story by adding detailed portraits of movements, communities and institutions.

In four parts, this book presents essays from the leading scholars on religious life in Canada that seek to address the state of religious communities dedicated to religious virtuosity normally characterized by formal promises of chastity, poverty, and obedience. The essays examine a broad range of topics related to the general state of consecrated (or “religious” or “monastic”) life in contemporary Canadian Christian and Buddhist traditions.

In the first section, the contributors trace the demographics and definitions of religious life in Canada. The second section examines Canadian developments in Catholic religious life during the Vatican II and the post-Vatican II eras. A third section explores trends in contemporary Canadian religious life, while the fourth section describes the consecrated life in other Canadian religious traditions.”

“Jason Zuidema is an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University. He is author and editor of a number of books and articles on Catholic and Protestant thought from the Early Modern to the Contemporary Periods.”

Source: Wilfrid Laurier University Press – https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/U/Understanding-the-Consecrated-Life-in-Canada