The death of religion was the conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century. Turns out, they were wrong. Religion is not dead. It’s still here. Actually, it’s growing.
Meet our guests
Gina Zurlo is a scholar of the history of mission and world Christianity. She is also a demographer of religion and studies every religion in every country of the world in the past, present, and future. She is Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA) as well as Visiting Research Fellow at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, founded by sociologist Peter Berger.
Links
Download the transcript of this episode here
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan Academic’s book The Lost Letters to the Twelve Prophets by John Goldingay.
- Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe by Gina Zurlo.
- “A Bleak Outlook is Seen For Religion”, 1968 article in the New York Times quoting Professor Peter Berger.
- More on secularisation theory.
- The Gay Science by Fredrick Nietzsche, where he suggested that “God is dead”.
- David Barrett’s obituary, giving more details about his life of missiology.
- ‘Abandoning God: Christianity plummets as ‘non-religious’ surges in census’, Sydney Morning Herald (2022).
- ‘In the US, decline of Christianity continues at rapid pace’, Pew Research Centre (2019)
- ‘Less than half of Britons expected to tick ‘Christian’ in UK census’, The Guardian UK (2021)
- When Americans Say They Believe in God, What Do They Mean?, Pew Research Centre (2018)
- ‘China on course to become ‘world’s most Christian nation’ within 15 years, The Telegraph UK (2014)
- ‘The Great Awakening in China’, 3-part series in China Source (2022)
- ‘The Hidden History of Insider Movements’, Christianity Today (2013)
- Status of Global Christianity, 2022, in the Context of 1900–2050, Centre for the Study of Global Christianity
- Think Christianity is dying? No, Christianity is shifting dramatically, Washington Post (2015)
- ‘Why has Pentecostalism grown so dramatically in Latin America?’ Pew Research Centre (2014)
Listen to the REWIND of this episode.
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