Faith no more: How the British are losing their religion

Seventy years ago people in England knew that this was a Christian country, and that really bad people went to hell while good ones went to heaven. Now they know that Christianity is as old-fashioned as empire and that religion is a false source of authority. This has nothing to do with intellectual argument. The intellectual challenge to Christian belief has not advanced an inch since around 1900. What has changed, at least in Europe, is the feeling that it all makes sense.

The prosperous but increasingly powerless states of western Europe may have been uniquely vulnerable to this kind of secularisation. Churches no longer supply the social services that used to keep them going – a partial exception is faith schools in England. At the same time, the narrative of Christian nations within a Christian Europe was underpinnned by a sense of national and continental superiority. Two world wars, the end of empire, and the occupation of the continent by the US and Russia stopped that looking like common sense.

What’s interesting now is whether religion will return. Counter-cultural religions will no doubt thrive. But it seems to be incredibly difficult to make the transition between cultural and countercultural forms.