Though that encounter took place
in Finland, I offer the anecdote to
point to some of the difficulties that
arise regarding the decline of religion
in Western societies, including
the US. There is plenty of polling and
research to suggest that though fewer
and fewer Americans, and younger
generations especially, are no longer
affiliating with a religion, it may not
be accurate to describe them as “secular”
or “nonreligious”.
Of course, precisely what we mean
by “religion” is a crucial question in
this discussion, and one I’ve examined
in my research. Like nearly any
concept of social, political, or scientific
importance, it is fundamentally
contested. Suffice it to say that the
idea of “religion” as a distinct transcultural
category and phenomenon
of human social life is fairly recent
– and fairly Western. My aim here is
not to wade into that debate so much
as point to the complex realities and
recent trends of American religious
life that add nuance to the notion of
“decline.”
One thing that is clear is that institutional
religion is declining in America.
That is, Americans are less and
less formally identifying with and
engaging in the practices of organized
religion. But Americans have
not necessarily stopped seeking meaning,
community, or rituals, nor the
“collective effervescence” that Émile
Durkheim, a French sociologist,
thought defined religion. So where
are they turning?
Religion Remixed
In 2020, the journalist and theologian
Tara Isabella Burton published
Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless
World in which she documents America’s
changing religious landscape. She
writes about how, according to polling
data, a significant percentage of
Americans, and millennials especially,
aren’t moving away from religion so
much as they are “remixing” it. They
“envision themselves as creators of
their own bespoke religions, mixing
and matching spiritual and aesthetic
and experiential and philosophical
traditions.”
A Pew Research Center study from
2018, for example, indicates that more
than half of those who do not affiliate
with a religion believe in a higher
power or spiritual force other than
that described in the Bible. New Age
beliefs are slightly more common.
Around 60 percent of the unaffiliated
believe in at least one of the following:
astrology, reincarnation, psychics,
or spiritual energy in physical objects.
(The percentage for Christians
is, surprisingly, the same – but that’s
a topic for another article.)
Burton suggests that the category
of “Nones” – i.e., those who do not
identify with a religion – is too broad
given the varied beliefs, practices and
affiliations of this group. Moreover,
it’s not entirely accurate, as some
Nones do have some type of relationship
with organized religion. This is
why she instead used the term “Remixed”,
which she says is composed
of three sub-categories for those who
aren’t neatly affiliated with a religion
but are neither fully “secular”.
The first group of the Remixed are
the spiritual but not religious (SBNR),
who as of 2017 were 27 percent of the
US population. (One further complication
is that many in this group – more
than a third – actually identify with
a religion. A contradiction? Perhaps.)
Then there are the “faithful nones”
who believe in some kind of higher
power but do not affiliate with a religion.
Unlike SBNRs, they don’t turn
to traditional communal spaces or
practices for events like marriages or
funerals, preferring to find alternative
forms of marking these occasions.
Finally, there are religious hybrids,
who will affiliate with one (or more)
religions but with mix and match as
they see fit.
Burton characterizes the Remixed
as seeking “intuitional” religion
which, in contrast to traditional
“institutional” religion, is primarily
about actualizing the self and its felt
needs. Some of the Remixed are turning
to the overtly spiritual, like witchcraft,
occultism or New Age thought,
or drawing on elements of Eastern
religions. Others are finding meaning
and belonging in fandom and gaming
communities that take on quasi-religious
qualities. Researchers have
pointed to how fitness phenomena like
Crossfit or Soulcycle operate as “secular”
religions. Interestingly, Burton
argues that “self-care” and wellness
culture - think Gwyneth Paltrow’s
Goop - has an implicit theology, providing
ethical notions of the self and
a metaphysics (often centered around
“energy”), along with ascetical practices.
The theology is one of division:
“We are born good, but we are tricked, by
Big Pharma, by processed food, by civilization
itself, into living something that
falls short of our best life. Our sins, if they
exist at all, lie in insufficient self-attention
or self-care: false modesty, undeserved
humilities, refusing to shine bright.”
Because of the difficulties in estimating
the size of the various groups,
it’s hard to know precisely how many
Remixed Americans there are. Yet by
cobbling together the various data
that exists, Burton estimates that
– conservatively – at least half of
America fits in this category, and
likely much more. Burton summarizes
by saying that “the marked rise
in ‘spirituality’ as distinct from religion
tracks closely with a decline in organized
religious affiliation. Only a tiny percent-
One thing that is clear is
that institutional religion
is declining in America.
Because of the difficulties
in estimating the size of the
various groups, it’s hard to
know precisely how many
Remixed Americans
there are.
SAM MAGAZINE 3/21 | 11