“The decline of institutional Christianity over the last 40 or 50 years has empowered a side of American religion that has always been there. The sort of do-it-yourself, "create your own Jesus" kind of faith. But, the forms that faith takes do have a real reason they are so appealing.” YearsKindRealReasonLastsFormJesusSidesChristianityDeclineEmpoweredDo It Yourself Author:Ross Douthat
“It's just silly to look at the incredibly steep decline in the mainline and the clear institutional weakening of Catholicism in the 1960s and 70s and pretend that something really big didn't change then. It did change. There really was a significant institutional decline.” LooksBigsClearSillySignificantCatholicismDecline1960sSteepWeakening Author:Ross Douthat
“The fact that institutional churches have gone into decline doesn't mean that we're going to enter some purely secular age. Secular people need to be aware of that.” PeopleNeedsMeanFactsAgeChurchGoneDeclineSecular Author:Ross Douthat
