Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Back in April, the Bible Society of the UK issued a report describing what they called a quiet revival. that was sweeping across England and Wales. Quote, Church decline in England and Wales has not only stopped, the subheading read, but the church is growing as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance.
Though the report did receive its fair share of critics, it also launched an essential conversation. And last Sunday, James Marriott joined that conversation in a large article in the UK publication The Times, which chronicled what he called a comeback for Christianity. And what made his article, entitled Full Fat Faith, The Young Christian Converts Filling Our Churches, even more interesting is that Marriott describes himself as a dry and desiccated materialist. At least part of the renewal, Marriott thinks, is due to a growing disenchantment the young are having with atheism. After all, during the peak of the new atheism, he wrote, quote, it was widely held that the world was soaring ineluctably along an arc of enlightened progress.
We were all destined to become richer, more democratic, more just, more rational, more secular. But those optimistic beliefs have been sorely tested in difficult recent years. Anyone tempted to simply dismiss the idea that religion could ever revive may not grasp how dramatically the cultural and economic landscape inhabited by young people. has changed. Instead of the utopia that secularism long promised the world, the post-911 realities included things like economic disruption, COVID, wokeness, thought police.
As a result, many young people are now rebelling toward a more traditional form of the Christian faith. As Marriott put it, If you're young, the establishment is obviously secular.
Nowadays it's precisely Christianity's marginal status that lends it glamour and charisma, comparable perhaps to the appeal of exotic seeming Eastern religions back in the nineteen sixties. And last week I spoke about this so-called quiet revival in the UK with podcaster, author and apologist Justin Briarly. Briarly was among the first to identify what he called the surprising rebirth of belief in God. For example, according to a recent poll of non-Christian Gen Z students, 75% said they'd consider attending church if they were invited. That's a huge increase from the past.
And though church attendance is always typically higher on Easter, this past Resurrection Sunday broke records all across Europe, especially in France. And according to one poll, the number of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK that are attending church at least once a month jumped. From just 4% in 2018 to 2%. to 16% in 2024.
Now, there's still a whole lot to learn about this phenomenon and what is causing it, and it remains to be seen. Just how sticky all this newfound faith will be for these young people that have been raised in such a highly secular environment.
However, it is absolutely fascinating. That just a decade ago, we were all talking about the rise of the nuns, the N-O-N-Es, the religiously unaffiliated, who often claimed that the church had let them down. But today, we're talking about the rise of the young religious, and they're talking about how they were let down. By secularism. And one more factor that we have to mention, as Marriott put it, perhaps channeling John Calvin.
that humans are inescapably religious. Quote, I suspect He wrote, The supernatural side of life. Not much catered for in secular rationalist democracies, is a constant of human nature. even if only for a minority. And it has more room for expression now.
If man is a religious animal, God may never really be banished. Indeed, I think it's even more than that. Secularism as a worldview is simply not big enough for the God-shaped hole that's in the human heart. And as more and more young people realize this, the church has an incredible opportunity to help them find the one who can fill the God-shaped hole in their hearts. You can hear my entire conversation with Justin Briarly about this so-called quiet revival on a special bonus episode of the Breakpoint Podcast.
And you can find the Breakpoint Podcast wherever you download your podcast. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
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