Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World

by Timothy J. Keller

It turns out, then, that the individualism of modern culture does not necessarily lead to a decline in religion. Rather, it leads to a decline of inherited religion, the sort one is born into.75 Religion that wanes comes with one’s assigned national or ethnic identity, as in “You are Indian, so you are Hindu; you are Norwegian, so you’re Lutheran; you are Polish, so you’re Catholic; you are American, so you should be a good member of a Christian denomination.” What is not declining in modern societies is chosen religion, religion based not on ethnicity or solely on upbringing but on personal decision.76 For example, only evangelical Protestants, among all religious bodies in the United States, are converting more people than they are losing—which is exactly what Berger, Casanova, Davie, and other sociologists would lead us to expect.77