Glimpsing the Beginnings of an Awakening
A remarkable religious movement has begun among leading public intellectuals who identify as classical liberals. It offers a glimmer of hope for the dawning of the Next Great Awakening in America.
Understanding Classical Liberalism
Classical liberalism finds its roots in 18th-century thinkers like Adam Smith and John Locke in Scotland. The founding and success of the United States of America itself represents the greatest triumph of classical liberalism. Today, a simple way of thinking about classical liberalism is to image Democrats like John F. Kennedy and Republicans like Ronald Reagan who were committed to civil liberties (freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc.) and also free market economics (rather than Marxist socialism). The term “classical liberal” doesn’t mean the same thing as the word “liberal” connotes in present-day politics.
In contrast to its tradition of classical liberalism, America has seen the surge of a radical new ideology characterized by a commitment to socialism and the moral commitments of neo-Marxist critical theories or identity politics or intersectionality or commitment to social groups perceived to be oppressed as a class. This political movement specifically rejects the approach to civil rights espoused by classical liberalism and seeks to shut out voices that do not agree with their values (e.g. cancel culture). In short, the new progressives are not liberals.
New Atheism and the Rise of the Nones
Another social movement of the 21st-century, New Atheism, featured thinkers like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This movement rejected religion as irrational and actually harmful to society, leading to a rise in atheist perspectives among many young people. Despite a great deal of popular success, the movement came under criticism from many philosophers and classical liberal public intellectuals for its lack of philosophical rigor. Nevertheless, New Atheism had a role in increasing the number of atheists in America and in the so-called “rise of the nones,” i.e. people who report their religious affiliation as “none.” About 30% of Americans currently identify as nones, and they have been increasing by about 1% per year throughout the 21st-century. This phenomenon has also been called “the dechurching of America.”
Hope Rises as Public Intellectuals Return to Church
Nevertheless, a movement has begun in the past five years or so among classical liberals. Repulsed by “illiberal” cancel culture and the rise of anti-white, anti-Semitic, and anti-Asian racial discrimination in the name of anti-racism, they have rejected the new ideology. But an increasing number of liberals have found that the rejection of Judeo-Christian values in Western societies has left them with no real basis for their liberal moral sentiments and convictions. As a result, many liberals, including atheists, have decided to go back to church. While they still may not fully believe in God, they have come to see that liberal societies cannot function without religious communities.
Public intellectuals are scholars who choose to interact directly with society instead of directing all their communications to academic settings. In recent years, many classical liberal public intellectuals have begun to return to church and synagogue. Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has become one of the most important “evangelists” in the world, leading untold numbers of young adults back to faith and religious observance, mostly while refusing to say whether he actually believed in God or not. (He now clearly does, and he and his family have become confessing Christians.) The economic historian Niall Ferguson now refers to himself as a “lapsed atheist who goes to church every Sunday.” The atheist historian of classical antiquity, Tom Holland, may be the world’s ablest defender of the importance of Christianity for forming the values of Western society, and after a long march back to church, has apparently converted to Roman Catholicism. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has recently confessed her faith in Christ and has joined a church.
The list of classical liberals who are either returning to church or explicitly coming to faith goes on but certainly includes thinkers like the self-described “Christian atheist” Douglas Murray and the Jewish journalist Bari Weiss, among others. (You can look for them all on podcasts or blogs across the internet and quickly confirm what you are reading here.)
What Does This Mean?
As a philosophy student in my undergraduate years, I observed that artists and philosophers do not create social movements, but they tend to see them emerging before everyone else does. It may take a decade or more for the rest of society to catch up with them or for their ideas to be expressed in a social movement. Obviously, not all currents in intellectual or artistic life become massive social movements, but this move back to church and synagogue by leading public intellectuals suggests that in the years to come, the average citizen may arrive at the same conclusion: going to church offers great benefits to individuals, and people’s participation in religious communities is necessary for a well-ordered society to flourish.
It is not enough for each of us to be committed to “my truth.” Societies require people to be committed to “our truth.” And further, “our truth” actually has to correspond to reality and to human nature for it to serve as a unifying element for the flourishing of a society. When a whole society commits itself to ideas that are not true, disaster ensues. But as people go back to church, most of them will find their way back to God. And God is the answer to America’s problems.
Northwest Prepares Christian Leaders
In any case, there are glimpses of thought leaders returning to church and to God. Will a social movement—the Next Great Awakening—come soon as more and more people wake up to the truth that our society has set a course toward shipwreck? We don’t know. But we should pray! In the meantime, Northwest University will continue to put Jesus first in all we do as we train future pastors and prepare the leaders of the Next Great Awakening.