{"id":2011,"date":"2026-05-05T04:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2026-05-05T04:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:25:12","slug":"the-resurgence-that-never-was-notes-on-christianity-nationalism-and-secularization-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/?p=2011","title":{"rendered":"The Resurgence That Never Was: Notes on Christianity, Nationalism and Secularization in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Paul-Francois Tremlett\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Last year a story appeared in the British press claiming that a \u201cquiet revival\u201d was taking place in English Christianity. Countering the figures in the 2021 Census and the British Social Attitudes Survey \u2013 both of which narrate ongoing decline in Christian religious identification and church attendance \u2013 the Bible Society reported that between 2018 and 2024, the number of Gen Z\u2019s attending church in England and Wales had risen sharply. However YouGov, the company which conducted the poll, has recently called their data into question, admitting that the methodology they used was susceptible to distortion and manipulation.<\/p>\n

The \u201cquiet revival\u201d narrative emerged at a time when right-wing populists in the UK were mobilising Christianity as a civilizational cornerstone that they said was under existential attack from Islam and immigration. Tommy Robinson\u2019s \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d march in September 2025 was addressed by Confessing Anglican Church Bishop Ceirion Dewar who declared, \u201cGod, you have not abandoned Britain!\u201d while, at an earlier far-right protest in Whitehall he thundered, \u201cThis nation of ours is under attack! We are at war! We are at war not just with the Muslim, not just with wokeness\u201d. If Gen Z\u2019s were going to church, Tommy Robinson supporters were now also apparently turning to Christianity.<\/p>\n

Intersecting with stories of Christian resurgence were then, discourses of a nascent Christian nationalism, and both drew oxygen from pervasive narratives of national decline, a decline allegedly enabled by a stifling, disenchanting bureaucratic and secular state. So let me restate, in case there is any doubt: there is no evidence of a Christian revival in England and Wales, and the greatest area of religious change in the UK continues to be the growth in numbers of those identifying with \u201cno religion\u201d. While there seems to be some churn and even modest growth among evangelical and conservative churches, it is not enough to offset the steep decline of the mainstream churches. The fact is that Christianity\u2019s centre of gravity shifted a long time ago to the Global South \u2013 to Africa, the Americas and Asia \u2013 and the UK\u2019s future, in common with Europe, appears to be increasingly non-religious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Church attendance report pulled after YouGov finds ‘fraudulent’ responses – BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n

Is there really a ‘quiet revival’ of religion among Gen Z? – BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n

The Quiet Revival: All you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n

The rise of Christian nationalism in Britain and its relationship with the far right | UK News | Sky News<\/a><\/p>\n

The truth about the \u201cQuiet Revival\u201d | Rhys Laverty | The Critic Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Tommy Robinson supporters are turning to Christianity – BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended readings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cotter, C. and Lee, L. 2020. \u2018Secularization\u2019 in A. Possamai & A. J. Blasi (eds),\u00a0The Sage <\/em><\/p>\n

Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion<\/em>, London: Sage.<\/p>\n

MacCulloch, D. 2010. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years<\/em>, London:<\/p>\n

Penguin.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul-Francois Tremlett\u00a0 Last year a story appeared in the British press claiming that a \u201cquiet revival\u201d was taking place in English Christianity. Countering the figures in the 2021 Census and the British Social Attitudes Survey \u2013 both of which narrate ongoing decline in Christian religious identification and church attendance \u2013 the Bible Society reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2012,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions\/2012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}