The Future of Faith

Huff Post: by Dianne Butler Bass.

Over the last year, it has become increasingly clear that there are two significant cultural forces reshaping the religious future: 1) the rise of the “unaffiliateds,” including atheists, agnostics, humanists, “spiritual but not religious” and post-theists; and 2) the rise of religious pluralism and immigrant faith in everyday life throughout the West.

Not long after I earned my doctorate in the history of Christianity, someone asked me, “What do you think will be the future of faith?” I replied, echoing Dr. McCoy from the original Star Trek, “I don’t know. I’m a historian, not a soothsayer.”

Strangely enough, people think that historians know the future and believe that past holds some insight to where we might be heading.

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