The Recovery of Religion

What place will American religion have in tomorrow's world? Evangelicalism enjoyed a popular run in the last generation. When, however, it was taken over by conservative politics and became just another weapon in Trump’s arsenal, it dishonored itself. Jerry Falwell Jr. fell into a moral swamp. Franklin Graham shamed his father. Many mega churches lost their appeal, and evangelical super-stars were reduced to being bit players in the Trump carnival.

This religious hiatus left the door wide open for a regeneration of Christianity’s authentic practices. I speak here of American Protestantism, much of which no longer seems to play a vital role in the American religious landscape.

Less and less attention is currently being paid to doctrine. When was the last time you either participated in or observed a debate about the virgin birth or whether Jesus is fully God or just similar to God?

More and more attention is given to understanding the way of life Jesus held out to his disciples—a discipline that still offers religious authenticity to this generation. While this ethical dynamic has a relationship to more liberal politics, its followers have been careful not to identify Christian ethics with party politics.

Now what about a vital religious perspective that is focused neither on doctrine or ethics? I think that there are two other significant forces that may increasingly constitute a reborn religious landscape.

1.Ritual and Community

I recently read an extended conversation between two Jewish scholars. Here is part of their dialogue.

Judaism is distinctive in that it places such a great emphasis on religious practices, often to the exclusion of any great worry about belief commitments. If you go into any shul, the number of people there who will say they believe in God might be rather minimal, but they’re all there participating in observance. Interestingly, it seems any concern with halachic practice has now become secondary to one’s commitments to the State of Israel—today Spinoza might never have been expelled from the Jewish community for his identification of God with nature, but had he said one word against Zionism, the herem would have been pronounced again.

Ritual and practice are both deeply ingrained in human experience. Perhaps the age of individualism is coming to an end, and the recovery of common purposes is gaining renewed strength. Getting the self into heaven is the preoccupation of a more limited number of believers.

We were born needing the protection and intervention of the group. Community is in our blood. Having come out of the isolation of the recent pandemic, conversations have centered on a need to return to ritual, even if it is no more than sharing meals. Nobody likes sitting alone at a baseball game. The greatest satisfaction is generated in what we do together. Ritual practice may again break down the walls of isolation. No institution is better prepared to recapture community than the congregation. We will not come together to recite creeds but to experience communal bonding, perhaps around a common table.

2.The recovery of the “nones”

Surveys that ask for “religion” have recently recorded significant numbers of responders listing “none.” Others categorize themselves as “no longers.” Conversations indicate that the vast majority of nones and no longers maintain an active interest in values, purposes and ultimate concerns, but without an omnipotent deity who rules from the sky. Ultimate values may be captured in events and their inter-relationship. Many attuned to philosophy may be attracted to the Process Thought introduced by the British philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, and detailed by the American theologian, John Cobb. Others finding traditional theological categories unhelpful, may see themselves as atheists or agnostics, or they may find meaning in what they call “spiritual practices” such as meditation, yoga, Buddhism, and other forms of encounter with the “Mystery” that gives their lives meaning.

If more traditional religious thought can break out of a preoccupation with the supernatural, a significant body of these “nones” and “no longers” may create new meaning in America’s churches, and may be attracted by rituals and the communities they generate.

None of this will come suddenly, but it will spring up here and there, now and then. More traditional religious communities may attract a new generation of seekers hungering for community and meaning. If American churches become open to a religion without traditional doctrine or an omnipotent sky-God, religion may find fresh significance.