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Dr. Reginald Bibby holds the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at The University of Lethbridge, where he has taught since 1975. Born and raised in Edmonton, he received a Ph.D. from Washington State University, an M.A. from The University of Calgary, a B.D. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, and a B.A. from The University of Alberta. He also is the recipient of an honorary doctoral degree from Laurentian University. In 2003 and again in 2007 he was acknowledged as one Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People. In 2006, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada by the Governor-General in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the nation.
For more than three decades, he has been monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of well‑known national surveys of adults and teenagers, in the process gathering pioneering and historic data on religion and youth. He has presented his findings in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, speaking at universities including McMaster, Queen’s, Waterloo, Toronto, UBC, Victoria, Alberta, Acadia, Oxford, Notre Dame, and Harvard. He is the author of twelve best-selling books and some seventy journal articles. To date, some 150,000 copies of his books have been sold.
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Five of the books focus on religion, four on youth, and three on social trends.
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Many of the his titles are well-known to Canadians – Fragmented Gods (1987), Unknown Gods (1993), Restless Gods (2002), There’s Got to Be More! (1995) and Restless Churches (2004); The Emerging Generation (1985), Teen Trends (1992), Canada’s Teen’s (2001), and The Emerging Millennials (2009); Mosaic Madness (1990), The Bibby Report (1995), and The Boomer Factor (2006).
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His latest book has just been released. It provides an update on the religious situation in Canada, and examines some of the possible consequences of the growing religious polarization in the country with respect to personal and social well-being, spirituality, and responses to death. The findings for Canada are put into global perspective, making use of unprecedented global survey findings that are now available. The new book is entitled, Beyond the Gods & Back: Religion's Demise and Rise and Why It Matters.
Professor Bibby has conducted research and analyzes in Canada for the CBC, the Solicitor General of Canada, the federal Social Trends Directorate, Syncrude, Alberta Children's Services, the Presbyterian, Anglican, United, and Alliance churches, along with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. His work in the United States has included a mammoth study of the ministry priorities of some thirty American denominations and close to 2,500 congregations carried out for a consortium of U.S. Protestant publishers (1998). In 2004 he carried out a major national study of what Canadians want from family life for the Vanier Institute of the Family.
Dr. Bibby is one of Canada’s better‑known academics. His work has been covered in virtually all of Canada’s major dailies and magazines, including Maclean’s cover treatment of Canada’s Teens in 2001, The Boomer Factor in 2006, and The Emerging Millennials in April of 2009. His extensive national and regional television and appearances over the years have included Canada AM, The National, Question Period, The CTV National News, As It Happens, Morningside, Cross Country Check Up, Sunday Edition, Off the Record, Midday, Pamela Wallin Live, Andy Barry, Dave Rutherford, Ron Collister, and Bill Good. In the United States, his work has been given exposure by such news outlets as CNN, The New York Times, the USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and Christianity Today.
Professor Bibby's efforts to interpret his findings have taken him into a wide variety of additional settings across North America. He is routinely sought after for comment, data, and presentations.
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