KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MBTS) – Midwestern Seminary hosted a conversation on September 15 between Thomas S. Kidd and Byron R. Johnson on their new book, The Death of Religion?: Nones, Others, and the Flourishing of Faith.
Jason Duesing, provost and professor of historical theology at Midwestern Seminary, moderated the conversation, which examined common claims about the decline of religion, groups frequently missed by religious surveys, and the relationship between active faith and human flourishing.
“For years, we’ve been hearing a familiar account about religion in America,” Duesing said. “Churches are shrinking. Younger generations are abandoning the faith. The rise of something called the ‘Nones’ signals religion’s approaching collapse.”
Drawing on historical analysis, congregational research, and findings from the Global Flourishing Study, Kidd and Johnson contend that this account is incomplete and, in important respects, misleading.
Rethinking Religious Decline
Kidd, research professor of church history at Midwestern Seminary, and Johnson, distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor University, developed the book through years of conversations as colleagues at Baylor.
“Every now and again, you’d see a new article come out in USA Today or The Washington Post,” Johnson said. “We’d be so frustrated at the content of the article, the story, and the implications of that piece.”
Their different academic backgrounds eventually became one of the project’s strengths.
“When you talk about interdisciplinary work, we always talk about it, but it’s rare that we do it,” Johnson said. “I think it’s really helpful to have a historian weighing in on these issues and giving us a perspective that goes back hundreds of years. This is not a debate that has been going on for just a few decades.”
Kidd said the book makes extensive academic research accessible to a general audience, especially pastors, ministry leaders, and interested laypeople.
“Sometimes pastors even get sucked into these myths about religion dying, Christianity collapsing, or all young people deconstructing,” Kidd said. “Part of what we’re doing with this book is presenting the research in a way that a general audience, but especially pastors, can read and understand.”
The “Nones” and the Overlooked “Others”
Much of the discussion centered on the religious “Nones,” those who select “none” when asked about religious affiliation. Kidd and Johnson cautioned that the category is more complicated than popular reporting often suggests.
“The majority of them are not atheists,” Kidd said. “They believe in God or a higher power, and surprising numbers of them engage in spiritual practices. A lot of them pray. A lot of them say they’ve had spiritual encounters in their lives. A small but notable minority of ‘Nones’ actually go to church.”
Johnson explained that some respondents select “none” because they do not recognize their church or denomination among a survey’s available options. In one study, some people who selected “none” later provided the name of a congregation where they regularly worshiped.
Kidd also acknowledged that a genuine decline is occurring among nominal Christians, those who might once have claimed Christianity because of family background or cultural expectations despite showing little active commitment to the faith.
“I think there is something happening to nominal Christianity in America,” Kidd said. “Today, those people are more likely than a generation ago to say, ‘I’m nothing.’ This is not necessarily a bad thing for the church. You’re getting a little more accuracy in terms of people’s spiritual self-understanding.”
Alongside the “Nones,” Kidd and Johnson identify another group they call the “Others.” These believers and congregations, often evangelical, Pentecostal, immigrant, or nondenominational, are frequently overlooked by standard religious surveys.
Research conducted in four American counties found that the established Congregational Census undercounted churches by at least 25% and going up to 40%.
“If those results played out across the country, you’re talking about tens of thousands of churches and probably tens of millions of Americans who are in church every Sunday,” Kidd said. “The media and scholars simply do not know about them, and they are never discussed.”
Faith and Human Flourishing
The conversation also examined the Global Flourishing Study, which Johnson co-directs. The study follows more than 200,000 participants across 22 countries and measures six domains of flourishing: physical health, mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close relationships, and financial and material stability.
“Religion wasn’t mentioned as one of the domains, but we do collect data on religion,” Johnson said. “What we find is that it’s the most important variable of all the variables in the entire study. It’s incredibly predictive, and it’s close to universal around the world.”
Johnson explained that regular participation in a faith community is especially associated with close relationships, gratitude, generosity, forgiveness, optimism, and hope.
“People who go to church regularly are the most grateful,” Johnson said. “They’re the most generous. They are the most likely to forgive. They’re the most optimistic. They have the most hope. It just goes on and on.”
Both speakers emphasized that flourishing does not mean avoiding pain or hardship.
“Flourishing isn’t the absence of suffering,” Johnson said. “Quite the opposite. It is suffering itself that helps us flourish many times in life.”
Kidd said the clearest evidence of flourishing may be found not in outward success but in how Christian community sustains people through suffering. Recalling his wife’s serious medical crisis, he described the care their family received from fellow church members.
“We have a testimony of what the church was to us during that time,” Kidd said. “When terrible things happened, the church was there for us. That’s what I think of when I think of flourishing.”
Encouragement for Pastors
For pastors, Kidd and Johnson said the evidence should inspire neither complacency nor despair. Churches face real challenges, but the broader picture provides substantial reason for confidence in the goodness of God’s design.
“If, as a pastor, you are calling on people to radical commitment to the Lord and to the church, you’re doing people a favor,” Kidd said. “Not only is it biblically commanded, but you’ve got the data to back it up that this is what is best for people. Be confident.”
The Death of Religion?: Nones, Others, and the Flourishing of Faith is available for purchase now.
