Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center published the latest results of its ongoing Religious Landscape Study (RLS), a nationwide survey of over 35,000 Americans. A little thrill of excitement rippled through the cultural atmosphere, especially among believers who saw the study’s most widely-publicized finding summarized in headline form: “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off.”

It was a rare glimmer of hope that Christianity’s long retreat from public prominence might be coming to an end. In general, it felt consonant with the much-discussed idea that something—the vibes, the momentum, the mood—may be shifting in the West. A renewed interest in faith would be in keeping with the trajectory of that shift.

But what if the change we’re living through isn’t a rebirth of Christianity exclusively so much as a reawakening of the religious impulse in general, a burst of spiritual enthusiasm that might be directed any number of ways? If so, a major task before modern societies will be figuring out how to channel that enthusiasm productively rather than destructively. Some of the RLS findings do show the potential for America to rediscover its ancestral faith. But they’re also in keeping with another, more troublesome recent trend: the return of paganism.

I call it a return because paganism is, in a sense, the default human spirituality. Yet today’s neo-paganism is different from its pre-Christian ancestor, precisely by virtue of its presence in societies that are steeped in centuries of Christian history. These societies might become more Christian, or they might become post-Christian, but they can never rewind time and become pre-Christian.