Religious socialization of non-religious university students

Studies of non-religion and youth raisequestions regarding the conceptual usefulness of religious socialization. Ifreligious socialization is studied only as the extent to which intergenerationaltransmission of religiosity occurs, the religioussocialization of those who identify as non-religious falls out of the scope of research.This article explores the religious socialization of a group of universitystudents from Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Israel who identify as non-religious.Interviews with these young adults allow us to explore the (religious)socialization of non-religious individuals in different contexts. The findingspoint to how the influence of socialization agents turned some of the studentsonto a path towards non-religion. Others, in turn, are characterized by familybackgrounds where religion has not played any significant part. Our findingsindicate that religious socialization, broadly construed, can be a usefulperspective for understanding varying paths towards non-religiosity.