When weeping Parisians watched Notre Dame, the city’s beloved 800-year-old cathedral, being consumed by a devastating fire in 2019, it served as a sad symbol of the decimation of churchgoing itself in France. Ever since revolutionaries began decapitating priests and nuns in the 1790s, a precipitous decline in Catholic faith has been underway in the country. The ‘Last Supper’ debacle of last summer’s Olympic opening ceremony only served to cement the country’s famously secular reputation.

However last December, against all odds, the bells of Notre Dame rang out again in time for Christmas. A remarkable reconstruction project has seen a transformed cathedral rise from the ashes. Its stained glass windows and original stones now glow luminously after centuries of grime were removed, and the building was packed with worshippers over the festive season. Perhaps, if God exists, he enjoys surprising us.

An even more remarkable story seems to be unfolding within France’s Catholic church itself. Over 7,000 adults were baptised during the 2024 Easter vigil, a rise of 32 per cent on the previous year. It was the largest intake of adult converts in France in living memory, and notably included many young people – over a third of the converts were aged 18-25. The trend looks set to continue into next year.

At Easter 2024, I wrote an article for The Spectator titled ‘A Christian revival is underway in Britain,’ which was widely shared online. I noted that an increasing number of secular influencers such as Tom Holland, Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan were persuading their audiences to reconsider the value of Christianity. Many who read the article were also encouraged by several recent conversion stories – former atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, comedian Russell Brand, and author Paul Kingsnorth have all been public about coming to faith.

I argued that these were all early signs of a ‘turning of the tide’ against the materialist story of reality that currently dominates the godless West. However, many critics accused me of naive over-confidence. My evidence was purely anecdotal. A few high-profile converts and social media influencers were hardly likely to make a dent in the terminal decline of Christianity in the UK.

At first glance, their scepticism is justified. According to the most recent UK census, less than half of people now identify as ‘Christian,’ and the unremitting downward trend in Anglican churchgoing has been noted for years on end. Except for last year.

In 2023, the number of people attending Church of England services actually increased by 5 per cent to almost a million regular worshippers. Admittedly, attendance remains lower than pre-Covid figures, but this post-pandemic bounce back is still a noteworthy contrast to the relentless decline of the previous 50 years.

In fact, the past year has yielded numerous data points that indicate the optimistic thesis of my book and podcast The Surprising Rebirth Of Belief in God may not be wishful thinking after all.

Alongside the recent upturn for Catholics in France and Anglicans in the UK is the remarkable growth of the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially in the USA. The denomination has always been relatively small in America, largely composed of expatriate communities. Yet, a recent survey by the Orthodox Studies Institute showed a 62 per cent increase in baptisms and chrismations, where new members are welcomed into the church, between 2021-2023 compared to the previous three years.

Orthodox priest Father Andrew Stephen Damick says that these figures reflect countless stories he has heard of new converts entering the church. Asked whether the astonishing influx reflects a new evangelistic strategy, he laughingly responds: “The Orthodox Church has done nothing to bring these people in.” He quotes a colleague who insists: “We haven’t changed anything to make this happen. It’s just happening.”

So where exactly are all these new converts and attendees coming from?

Again, my hunch is that a ‘meaning crisis’ has been brewing in the West for a long time. The loss of the Christian story as an overarching narrative has led to the rise of ‘expressive individualism’ – a term coined by philosopher Charles Taylor for the vast variety of stories individuals now choose to live their lives by.

However, in recent years these stories have increasingly bumped up against each other in our never-ending culture wars. Now, a generation of millennials and Gen Zs, exhausted by the demands of constant self-invention, are looking for a better story to make sense of their life.

Encouraged by a set of prominent video and podcast hosts, the search for a story is leading some of them back to church. Some of these converts are doubtless ex-evangelicals choosing to swap tribes, but Orthodox and Catholic churches can also thank hugely influential YouTubers like Jonathan Pageau and Bishop Robert Barron for an uptick of genuinely new believers in their congregations.

Again, recent research seems to bear out the hypothesis that a younger generation is looking for meaning in the Christian story once more.

The Bible Society in England and Wales has been uncovering evidence suggestive of a new ‘openness’ to faith among many groups of the population. The proportion of non-Christians who now appear ‘warm’ to spirituality and the value of scripture has increased notably in recent years. Rhiannon McAleer, head of research at Bible Society, has given these seekers the avatars of ‘Stoic Steve’ and ‘Meditation Millie’ – young, intelligent, and successful, they nevertheless feel disillusioned by the materialist culture around them. Seeking guidance from a variety of sources, some have become aware of the Bible’s cultural importance and are increasingly turning to the ancient wisdom of scripture as a guide to life.

A surge in Bible sales during 2024 seems to support the findings of McAleer’s research. While the general book market remained flat, sales of the Bible rose by an astonishing 22 per cent in the USA.

Perhaps most surprising of all is the fact that Gen Z (born 1997-2012), the generation least likely to be found in church, are nevertheless the most receptive to spirituality. They have been dubbed ‘the open generation.’ You only have to look on TikTok to see how this openness is often expressed. From ‘Manifesting’ to ‘WitchTok,’ there are all kinds of esoteric supernatural beliefs being practised.

However, for a generation that isn’t carrying the religious baggage of its parents and grandparents, there is also a remarkable openness to Christianity.

Three-quarters of non-Christian students say that, if asked, they would accept an invitation to church. That’s according to Fusion, a Christian student organisation that surveyed thousands of students across UK campuses. Roscoe Crawley helped to compile the research. He says that Fusion’s staff teams have been encountering ‘unprecedented’ numbers of students coming to faith and beginning to attend church in the past two years.

Which leads us to another unexpected trend. Young men are starting to become more religious than women.

The typical gender split in most congregations has always been one third male to two thirds female. However, The New York Times reported in September that, for the first time, more Gen Z men are now attending church than their female counterparts in the USA. The same phenomenon has since been recorded in Australia, where 39 per cent of Gen Z men now identify as Christian compared to 28 per cent of women. This demographic flip has never been seen before, yet it mirrors recent findings in Finland which showed a more than doubling of young men in churches between 2011-2019. Likewise, the boom in Orthodox parishes is being led by young male converts. Many Anglo-Catholic, evangelical, and charismatic churches are seeing the same thing.

Anglican minister Glen Scrivener told me of an encounter with one such millennial male who turned up ‘out of the blue’ at his church. The young man explained that he had become convinced that Christianity was the bedrock of British culture. He had decided to purchase a Bible (the King James Version) and try out his local church.

“So how long have you been on the ‘Tom Holland train’?” asked Glen.

The man looked confused. “What’s Spider-Man got to do with it?”

The bewildered response was evidence that neither Tom Holland (the historian, not the Marvel actor) nor any individual influencer is single-handedly responsible for the new appreciation of Christianity. Holland’s thesis that the West owes its moral foundations to Christianity is fast becoming a widespread belief.

Naturally, if there is a rebirth underway then it will throw up all kinds of complications. I’ve no doubt that a reaction against ‘woke’ identity-politics is among the factors involved in this trend, especially among young men who are growing more conservative than young women. The same forces that put Donald Trump back in the White House may also be responsible for sending men back to church.

Likewise, there are those who want to bring back ‘cultural Christianity’ for a political agenda. Writer Carolyn Morris-Collier pithily summarises the danger, writing: “There’s a difference between Christianity and Christendom. While Tom Holland’s book Dominion makes a convincing case that Western values are rooted in Christian foundations, the reverse is not true. Christianity does not depend on Western civilisation—and is indeed flowering throughout the Global South.”

Whatever the political dimension of this rebirth, churches who wish to receive a new wave of meaning seekers will need to find a way of transcending the usual political fault lines and offering something more substantive than a cultural Christianity co-opted for a conservative revival.

It will be some years before we know for sure whether a coming revival is underway. Big-picture transitions tend to emerge over decades. But what can’t be denied is that something is happening. Many Christian leaders have noticed something happening in their churches and in the wider culture. There had been a change in the atmosphere. It had become easier to have conversations about faith. New visitors were walking into their buildings. In particular, young men have been showing up, often looking for a stability, identity, and rule of life that isn’t on offer in the wider world.

Significantly, many of the church leaders I have heard from reported unprecedented numbers attending their Easter and Christmas services in 2024. While a ‘revival’ may still be some way off, I feel confident enough to predict that we will also hear about unprecedented numbers of people attending those same services this year.

Notre Dame isn’t the only ancient church with a story of rebirth to tell. How many will follow in years to come?

Justin Brierley

Article first published in The Spectator. (Christmas 2024)

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