Last week, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released its sixth annual list of “faith and cultural trends likely emerge” in 2025.
The findings are sobering to say the least — but as C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Decline of Religion,” they may not be as troubling as they first appear.
Key Themes
Since 2020, the CRC has released an annual tracking study called the American Worldview Inventory. The 2025 report includes five “faith patterns” derived from a mix of live interviews and written surveys of 2,000 respondents nationwide. But, just as with election predictions, it’s important to keep in mind that a small survey can’t completely predict the way 350 million people will act; it just gives us a rough idea.
Reshaping God to our liking: The fastest growing segment of the faith community are the “Don’ts” – people who don’t know, believe, or care about God or His existence. The report also states that while about 50% of Americans say they believe in the God of the Bible, the numbers of those who follow and worship Him are declining.
The syncretism train will keep rolling: Syncretism is “a worldview blending multiple philosophies for personal satisfaction” (emphasis added). The jaw-dropper data point in this category is that the survey revealed that “only 37% of Christian-church pastors holding a biblical worldview.”
Discipleship drops off the radar: The results indicate that biblical mentorship is uncommon.
Organized Christianity takes a hit: The number of Christian churches and full-time pastors will likely decline.
Signs of backbone: Donald Trump winning the presidential election is anticipated to “initiate a period of greater political awareness among a small but noteworthy segment of conservative churches.”
Religion vs. Microrevival
The five faith patterns are not exactly overflowing with the warm-and-fuzzies. In fact, the results may seem to contradict several qualitative factors that point to what could be called a “microrevival,” especially among younger Americans.
In the sporting world, for example, 20 Ohio State University football players raised eyebrows when they donned shirts that read, “Follow Jesus,” “Jesus Saves,” “Jesus Won,” and “Just Here to Give Glory to God.” After winning the NCAA Championship, the Ohio State quarterback immediately praised God as millions watched on TV.
In the world of entertainment, a host of faith-based movies emerged and found large audiences in 2024. Movies like Cabrini, The Sound of Hope, and Bonhoeffer were buoyed by the acclaim surrounding the 2023 hit move Sound of Freedom.
In music, country-rock artist Jelly Roll is teaming up with contemporary Christian artist Brandon Lake for a worship album after the country artist publicly said of one of Lake’s songs, “It’s been years since I worshipped the way that I worshipped to that song.”
In academia, a highly encouraging trend is the record-breaking enrollments at Christian universities nationwide, standing in direct contrast to the trend of declining enrollment for universities overall.
In politics, Donald Trump’s reelection was greatly influenced by Christians heading to the polls, especially in swing states. Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA is credited with building what Trump called “a grassroots army” of mostly twenty-something conservative Christians who registered thousands of voters in critical counties in every state.
A high-level skimming of these societal ingredients point to 2024 as a year that may have seen the rebirth of Christian fortitude in America – the resolve to meet the enemy head-on despite the tempest of piercing propaganda and epithets launched by bicoastal elites, anti-Christian academics, and the far-Left Democrat regime previously in Washington D.C.
Unveiling American Christianity
With this contrasting data in mind, what is the state of Christian faith in America? Are the foreboding trends in the CRC report correct, or are we seeing the spark of Christian revival?
It’s possibly — and highly probable — that both are taking place simultaneously. What seems like a paradox may actually be a revealing of the true state of Christianity in America.
Lewis faced the same question about Christianity in England 80 years ago, and in response wrote an essay titled “The Decline in Religion” in 1946. He concluded:
The religion which has declined was not Christianity. It was a vague theism with a strong and virile ethical code.
This observation is very similar to CRC’s assessment that “about half of all U.S. adults believe that the God of the Bible is real, but less than half chose to worship or follow that deity.”
Lewis notes that this vague theism is not biblical Christianity, since “far from standing over against the world, [it] was absorbed into the whole fabric.”
Rings a bell, doesn’t it?
The reality of Christianity in America seems aligned to Lewis’s delineation, that “the fog of ‘religion’ has lifted: the positions and the numbers of both armies can be observed.” From this viewpoint, the CRC report may right. Society is getting a much clearer view of the battlefield of worldviews, as the manifestation of secular atheism stands in complete opposition to biblical Christianity.
Young Americans for whom this choice is clear are emerging, and so is their conviction to embrace the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
While Biblical Christianity in America may not be as prevalent as we once thought, the November elections taught us that the residue of American values lingers. Since the mere notion of human value rests wholly on the fact that mankind is made in the image of God, it is reassuring that millions of Americans took a stand against the fruits of relativism and a step (perhaps unknowingly) toward true reality — and others are waking up. . That awful and persistent knocking that the human conscience could previously ignoreis becoming louder: Could it be? Is He really there?
Fan the embers of revival, dear Christian, the fields are white for the harvest!
Joachim Osther is a freelance writer focusing on the intersection of culture and Christianity. He holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Veritas College and Seminary, and two degrees in the life sciences, a field in which he works as a strategist, advisor, and published author. He is also an occasional contributor to RaymondIbrahim.com, chronicling the relevance of historical clashes between militant Islam and the West.
The post The Decline of Vague Theism in America appeared first on The Stream.
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