I just returned from the Association for the Sociology of Religion annual conference in San Francisco – a wonderful city that I explored a bit when not attending sessions (rented a bike and cycled nearly 40km up some steep hills!). A favourite highlight was cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge. Lest it appear that I was on a mini-vacation, I gave a presentation on how relatively irreligious individuals by and large adopt a ‘hands off’ approach to religious socialization and

Why do some convert to a religion and others do not? What contributes to de-conversion and then conversion to another religion, or to no religion at all? Over the last half century in particular social scientists have published countless books and articles based on sound empirical data to help us answer these questions. For much longer theologians have grappled with these questions, often drawing on spiritual assertions that they hold to be true alongside anecdotal stories to