Godless Religion brings social-scientific research on religious disaffiliation into conversation with constructive theology. The project asks whether the changing religious landscape signals not simply the decline of Christianity, but the need to rethink some of its inherited theological resources.

What We’re Asking

Three core questions guide the project:

1. In light of current social-scientific research on disaffiliation and the project’s themes of Autonomy, Authority, and Pessimism, what theological resources can support “dones” and RBNSs in meaning-making and the formation of new worldviews?
2. Does the rise of the “dones” and continued presence of RBNS populations indicate not the exhaustion of Christianity, but the inadequacy of inherited theological accounts of agency, authority, and hope in late-modern conditions marked by pluralism, doubt, and declining belief-certainty?
3. What new or renewed theological resources might address the conceptual and existential challenges raised by contemporary religious disaffiliation, and how might these resources contribute to constructive theological reflection on faith, authority, and hope in the modern religious landscape?

How We’re Exploring These Questions

The project organizes its research around three thematic areas, each addressing a key dimension of the theological and philosophical challenges raised by contemporary religious disaffiliation.

Year 1: Autonomy

The first year examines questions of moral and epistemic agency within ecclesial life: the capacity of believers to exercise conscience, inquiry, evaluative judgment, and dissent without being framed as spiritually deficient, rebellious, or unfaithful.

Scholars will consider questions including:

• How does the restraint of curiosity, questioning, doubt, and flexibility on non-central issues contribute to religious disaffiliation?
• Under what theological conditions can autonomy be affirmed within Christian communities without collapsing into individualism?
• What ecclesial structures allow for genuine moral and epistemic agency while preserving communal norms and theological commitments?
• How might Christian doctrine be articulated in ways that distinguish faithful agency from rebellion?

Year 2: Authority

The second year examines how contemporary religious disaffiliation reflects a breakdown of trust in religious authority, raising questions about the legitimacy, scope, and moral credibility of those who claim the right to speak for God.

Scholars will consider questions including:

• How should theological accounts of authority respond to widespread experiences of harm, exclusion, or spiritual abuse within institutional Christianity?
• Which specific forms of authority, pastoral, interpretive, institutional, or political, are being contested by disaffiliates, and why are these challenges perceived as threats to Christian faith and communal stability?
• How can Christian theology articulate a doctrine of authority that resists spiritualized coercion while preserving legitimate forms of guidance, discipline, and communal normativity?
• If religious exit reflects profound political and moral misalignment between believers and ecclesial institutions, what theological and structural dynamics have contributed to this rupture? What constructive theological alternatives might restore moral credibility without collapsing into relativism?

Year 3: Christian Pessimism

The third year explores how theological resources might sustain hope when institutional collapse, disillusionment, and unresolved suffering erode the interpretive frameworks that once made faith intelligible.

Scholars will consider questions including:

• Does Christian pessimism offer hope in matters of religious and existential crisis?
• What role does doubt play in a faithful account of Christianity as reflected in the Christian tradition?
• How can theological hope be sustained in the wake of institutional and personal religious disillusionment?