Christian Smith, "Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America" (Oxford UP, 2025)

Dec 22, 2025

Christian Smith, a leading sociologist and author, delves into why traditional American religion is in decline. He discusses the cultural sidelining of faith, particularly among millennials and Gen Z, who are increasingly opting for 'spiritual but not religious' identities. Smith highlights the impact of societal shifts, from the rise of the internet to changing views on gender and sexuality. He also examines the paradox of mainline Protestantism's decline despite its cultural success, linking evangelicalism's struggles to political shifts and neoliberalism's effects on community ties.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Obsolescence Is Cultural, Not Only Numerical

Obsolescence means cultural sidelining, not just numerical decline of religion.
Something once central can be supplanted by other cultural goods and functions.

INSIGHT

A Convergence Of Unintended Forces

Multiple unintended forces in the 1990s–2000s converged to make traditional religion less relevant.
These included the internet, failed wars, scandals, and the rise of the Christian right's backlash.

INSIGHT

Religion's Decline Fueled New Spiritualities

Decline of traditional religion did not produce mass atheism; it produced a big turn toward 'spiritual but not religious.'
Younger people favor individualized spirituality, magic, and alternative practices.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Is traditional American religion doomed?
Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of Americans identifying as "not religious" has increased remarkably. Religious affiliation, service attendance, and belief in God have declined. More and more people claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Religious organizations have been reeling from revelations of sexual and financial scandals and cover-ups. Public trust in "organized religion" has declined significantly. Crucially, these religious losses are concentrated among younger generations. This means that, barring unlikely religious revivals among youth, the losses will continue and accelerate in time, as less-religious younger Americans replace older more-religious ones and increasingly fewer American children are raised by religious parents. All this is clear. But what is less clear is exactly why this is happening. We know a lot more about the fact that traditional American religion has declined than we do about why this is so.
Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford UP, 2025) aims to change that. Drawing on survey data and hundreds of interviews, Christian Smith offers a sweeping, multifaceted account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion. An array of large-scale social forces-everything from the end of the Cold War to the rise of the internet to shifting ideas about gender and sexuality-came together to render traditional religion culturally obsolete. For growing numbers of Americans, traditional religion no longer seems useful or relevant. Using quantitative empirical measures of big-picture changes over time as well as exploring the larger cultural environment—the cultural "zeitgeist"—Smith explains why this is the case and what it means for the future. Crucially, he argues, it does not mean a strictly secular future. Rather, Americans' spiritual impulses are being channelled in new and interesting directions.

Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith is well known for his research focused on religion, adolescents and emerging adults, and social theory. He has written many books, including Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (with Michael O. Emerson), as well as Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (with Melinda Lundquist Denton).

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature.

YouTube Channel: here

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network