Author: John Stonestreet
Perhaps the most significant trend of the last decade in faith and religion has been the rise of the “nones.” By now, most people understand that there was never an invasion of Catholic women in habits, but rather a notable increase, particularly among the younger generation, of the religiously unaffiliated. Often marked by a rejection of church and clear doctrine, the “nones” were the fastest growing religious demographic in America.
That trend is over. In fact, while there are still cynical and skeptical young people rejecting the baggage of their Christian upbringings, there’s now also a notable group of spiritually curious young people rejecting the baggage of secularism. This is especially the case in the U.K., where very few young people have Christian baggage to reject since they never went to church in the first place.
At the same time, a growing list of prominent atheists and skeptics have changed their tune about Christianity. Some of the prominent voices of the 90s, who told us that religion poisons everything and God is a delusion, now proclaim the importance of faith for the flourishing of society. Others, like American philosopher and mathematician David Berlinski in the new Truth Rising film, point to the damage done to Western civilization by woke ideology. As former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson puts it in the film, the West is now sputtering and dying because of the “alternative fuels” we’ve tried.
Recently, I interviewed podcaster and author Justin Brierley about what he has called this “surprising rebirth of belief in God.”
It is a bit of a mixed bag what’s going on. You described a vibe shift in the U.S., and I think we’ve been seeing a similar-ish kind of vibe shift in various quarters here [in the U.K.]. And part of it is people looking for an identity, something that they can sort of bed down in.
And for a lot of people, I think they’re rediscovering in a sense, what you could call cultural Christianity as an identity marker to say, “Look, we’re not very pleased with all the other forms of identity that are currently on offer around us.” Be it in the case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, she’s pointed out there’s sort of woke ideologies on the Left. There’s Islam, there’s authoritarian regimes around the world. There’s lots of other options. In that viral article she wrote a couple of years ago titled, “Why I am Now a Christian,” she was sort of pointing to the fact we need Christianity to make sense of ourselves as a civilization, as a culture.
Of course, a lot of people criticized her. And we’re happy to point out that Richard Dawkins also wants some form of cultural Christianity. That doesn’t mean he wants Christ. But I think there’s a sort of transition phase. There’s a spectrum here. And you’ve got at one end, those who are perhaps more cynically co-opting Christianity for a purely cultural agenda. And even people, you know, thoroughgoing atheists like Richard Dawkins could in a sense sign up for something like that.
I think what you’ve got somewhere in the middle is people who both recognize the cultural value of Christianity and all it’s given us in the West, but who are also sort of quite attracted to it as well, but perhaps are struggling to commit to the supernatural claims, and so on. And I think you might put someone like Tom Holland in that category. He absolutely recognizes and wrote a bestselling book on the way that Christianity has completely shaped the moral instincts of the West. And yet he struggles to believe in the supernatural to some extent. Now, interestingly, he does find himself in church on many Sundays. And he says when he goes to London’s oldest church, St. Bartholomew the Great, he feels he can believe, he can get there, he can. And so, you find people who are sort of on that cusp and want to jump in. And then I think you find people who ... have gone on that intellectual journey and have jumped in.
And I would include Ayaan Hirsi Ali in that. After writing that article, she also gave some very moving interviews about her personal journey to faith and the way in which it was really recognizing that Christ was the solution to her personal crisis; meaning that led her to embrace Christ.
I’ve seen across the spectrum that there’s this interesting thing happening. But it is often beginning with people recognizing that the worldviews that we currently embrace in the West just aren’t working out, and it’s causing them to look again at the Christian story.
To hear the entire conversation with Justin Brierley about this re-emergence of belief in God, check out the special bonus episode of the Breakpoint podcast. Also, today is the global streaming premiere of Truth Rising, a joint project of the Colson Center and Focus on the Family. Watch the documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
If you’re a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.