I agree with Art Deco on this one. Certainly, there was erosion from the WW I and II, but the real crisis came from the 60s onward.

In Ireland, for instance, the inflection points were in the late 70s/early 80s over contraception and divorce, then in the 90s over Church scandals and abuse.

I visited Ireland in the late 90s. An older man told me that many staunch Irish Catholics lost their faith over the 1992 scandal of Eamonn Casey, Bishop of Galway, who had a long-term affair with an American woman, fathered a son, and supported the son with church funds.

The Irishman’s son, ordinarily a cheerful, level-headed fellow, told me he would happily walk across the street to punch out the Christian Brother who tormented him and his classmates in school.

In Europe and America, Christian authorities often did a poor job of representing Christ. It can’t all be blamed on world wars and secularization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiErbpZHfbk

Your Love Never Fails – Chris Quilala / Jesus Culture (and Anthony Skinner)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoezWBPGRAc

Newsboys – God’s Not Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_OTz-lpDjw

Maverick City Music

(everything)

A significant number of Europeans lost faith after witnessing one or both (depending on their age) world wars.

In the US, religion is following a somewhat different course so far.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Asbury_revival

Some students stayed after a chapel service, then stayed longer, then people and more people kept coming. They prayed and sang and loved and testified. Eventually 50,000 – 70,000 people came from all over the world to participate.

Gen Z young were strongly represented. Kevin Brown, president of Asbury U, said:
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The very last day that we had a formal service together, I’ll never forget it. Someone stood in front of all these students — 1,500 Gen Z students in the room — and said:

–“Asbury Awakening’s Impact Ongoing, One Year Later: ‘An Overwhelming Glimpse of God'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUjIdbFgAmE
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I wish them well too. Ultimately Christianity is about God and people, not buildings.

In the San Francisco Mission District there were storefront churches, which were just a couple dozen folding chairs in a room and a preacher up front giving a revival-style talk. The attendees were mostly working-class Hispanics.

Back during my born-again phase I poked my head into one of those meetings and stayed for a while. I liked their enthusiasm. I felt good about what they were doing and wished them well. However, I already had a church.

Kate on December 27, 2025 at 3:15 pm:
“Traditionalist churches in the U.S. are brim-full of young men. There is hope.”
J.J. on December 27, 2025 at 3:10 pm:
“Maybe the revival is in its infancy.”
Perhaps because I read mostly conservative web sites, it seemed to me that we probably were experiencing another (modest?) Great Awakening. Support for Christian practice seemed to be receiving more emphasis than it had in the 2000 to (say) 2018 time span.

I was/am slightly surprised to learn about Catholic churches in Germany, given my top level exposure to the Reformation, etc., suggesting The Church was being minimized or removed at every turn. On the other hand, my parents were reared in Protestant and Catholic households (1920’s-30’s) respectively, although by the time they met, dated, and married, they must have lost their faith since they raised us in a nonreligious setting (no church or Sunday school attendance). For some reason I never queried them about how and why they ended up with that belief posture, but kids were mostly just supposed to follow their parent’s guidance.

As buildings with stirring architecture, churches could be converted into “New College” type liberal arts schools with an anti-Woke/CRT emphasis. Perhaps a “constellation” type campus of several churches across a given region? The internet makes this much more practical than in prior decades.

Went to one last Easter. They offered baptism after the service. Had robes, make-up rooms, towels. It was going to be full-immersion in a separate room. Probably a dozen people went there.

They are very busy internally, with small-groups and other organizations. They are busy in the community. And they have armed security.

Went to one some years back. Enormous congregation. Sermon was good. It’s hard to look easy and make connected points. If you were too far from the dais, there was a jumbotron. Heard when the bought a new set of furniture, they saved $6000 by unloading it themselves. That’s a lot of furniture.

The old, traditional churches…. They may end up empty but it’s not the end of organized religion.