Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
The Hundred Million: Some History of “Religious Nones”

The Hundred Million: Some History of “Religious Nones”

Last updated on: March 9, 2021 at 2:30 am by Chris Gehrz

The Hundred Million: Some History of “Religious Nones” 2021-03-08T17:07:45-04:00 Chris Gehrz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

To my non-expert ears, one of the most persistent themes sounding in American religious history is that of Americans wishing their country were more religious.

Burge, The Nones

Nowadays, that concern usually attaches to the much-discussed rise of the “religious nones.” When the General Social Survey began in 1972, just 5% of its respondents identified with no religion. But as political scientist Ryan Burge notes, that number has skyrocketed since reaching double digits a quarter-century ago, doubling from 12% in 1996 to 24% in 2018. By many measures, such non-affiliation — and disaffiliation — is even more common among younger Americans. In 2019, the Pew Research Center reported that 40% of millennials were religiously unaffiliated, a 10-point rise in just ten years. The 49% of the same age group identifying as Christians was down 16 points over the same decade.

Burge’s also a Baptist pastor, and his work on “the nones” — including a short book by that title published today — is inspired by the same motivation that led me to write a “spiritual but not religious” biography of one famous American: to help fellow Christians understand their friends, relatives, neighbors, and colleagues who are neither disbelievers nor adherents, but something more complicated and less familiar. But researching my book on Charles Lindbergh also reminded me that we don’t have to look too far back in American history to find similar anxieties about religious belonging, behavior, and belief.

In fact, the fear used to be far greater. In the waning days of World War II, for example, one Catholic priest claimed that 70% of Americans were religious “nones.”

A G.I. looking at a Madonna in a European church near the end of World War II – Library of Congress

Without citing any source for his numbers, Father James Keller warned readers of the May 1945 issue of the American Ecclesiastical Review that there were

approximately 100,000,000 individuals in our country who are living off the benefits of Christianity, but who are becoming less and less conscious of the great Christian fundamentals that make possible their present way of life…. If this trend goes far enough, many believe that it will open the way for the speedy rise of a new paganism that would eventually remove the United States from the society of Christian nations.

James G. Keller, MM – Maryknoll Mission Archives

Trusting that everyone had “a bit of the missionary” in them, Keller hoped to recruit a movement he called The Christophers: “bearers of Christ” who would work in areas like education, communications, government, and the labor movement “to bring Christ to all in our land—whether they be in the crowded cities or in the most remote and sparsely settled areas—who either do not know Christ or are opposed to Him.” A follow-up article in 1946 called for a million such lay workers, describing the end of WWII and the start of the Cold War as “the most unusual opportunity in history to recapture the world for Christ.”

In a sense, Keller was simply extending the philosophy of his religious order. Maryknoll had been founded in 1911 by Fathers Thomas Price and James Walsh, who appealed for “young men who feel a strong desire to toil for the souls of heathen people and who are willing to go afar with no hope of earthly recompense and with no guarantee of a return to their native land…” But rather than toiling for Asian souls in Maryknoll’s traditional fields, Keller would spend his career in his native land. (In fact, he rejected a foreign assignment in 1946 in order to focus on building his Christophers organization.)

The Catholic Church had long regarded the U.S. as a missions field, sending clergy to help faithful immigrants resist assimilation into a Protestant culture. But Keller was influenced by “Americanists” like the historian Peter Guilday, who envisioned American Catholics “naturally and integrally” intertwining their spiritual and national allegiances. To his successor and biographer, Richard Armstrong, Keller’s 1945 letter just repeated “the old Americanist theme in modern garb.” Though that article would be reprinted and distributed by bishops around the county, the priest emphasized broadly Christian fundamentals (“the concept of a personal God, the divinity of Christ, the Ten Commandments, the sacredness of the individual, and the sanctity of marriage and the home”) rather than Catholic dogmas, and the work of the Christophers would fit the broadly “Judeo-Christian” orientation of Eisenhower-era civil religion. (I first encountered Keller via a letter from him in the papers of the secular Jewish filmmaker Billy Wilder, who received a Christopher award for his adaptation of Charles Lindbergh’s book, The Spirit of St. Louis.)

Though the patriotic Keller fretted about the infiltration of Communism into American universities, newspapers, and labor unions, he insisted that most of his “Hundred Million” were “certainly neither anti-religious nor atheistic.” Their American values were Christian values, threatened by “savage forces” bent on stamping out the religion that served as “the one great universal cause that champions the dignity of the human being.” So Keller pronounced himself “very hopeful” that the “trend has not developed to the degree that it is incapable of remedy.”

(That, too, rings familiar. In previewing his book last month in Christianity Today, Burge pointed to research showing that “nones” are as likely to become Christians as atheists or agnostics, and he quoted Ed Stetzer’s maxim that “The unaffiliated aren’t the unreachable.”)

Keller wildly overstated the degree of religious non-affiliation in 1945, but his optimism was not unfounded: the years following World War II proved to be a time of significant religious ferment in the United States. The same month that Keller published his “Hundred Million” article, seventy thousand Chicagoans crammed into Soldier Field for a Youth for Christ rally, where the roster of speakers included a young evangelist named Billy Graham. Four years later, Graham appealed to some of the same anti-Communist themes as Keller in his landmark revival in Los Angeles. In between those milestones in the postwar emergence of neo-evangelicalism, religious historian Patrick Allitt also notes phenomena as disparate as the growing popularity of clergy who made use of psychoanalysis (Protestant pastor Norman Vincent Peale and Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman) and the mini-surge of young men eager to follow Thomas Merton into monasticism after the publication of The Seven Storey Mountain in 1948.

That was the same year that Charles Lindbergh published his own appeal for Western civilization to recover religious wisdom, Of Flight and Life, and Father Keller wrote his most popular book, You Can Change the World. The latter inspired a short Hollywood film starring Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Loretta Young and a weekly Christophers TV series, though its reach paled next to that of Fulton J. Sheen, who used mass media to bring Catholicism to the American masses.

Twelve years after Keller’s initial article, the Census Bureau found a new significance for his 100 million number: that’s how many American adults identfied as Protestant or Catholic in 1957. That year, only 4% of respondents to a bureau poll claimed no religious affiliation, similar to the GSS figure fifteen years later.

None of which is to say that today’s concern about religious non-affiliation will certainly give way to tomorrow’s religious revival. At this blog and in a recent book, Philip has persuasively argued that demographic changes alone are pushing American society towards something more like European-style secularization. But the story of Father Keller’s “Hundred Million” does remind me that there’s nothing new under the sun… and that history has a way of providing events like wars — and pandemics — to disrupt outcomes that seem inevitable.

Armstrong’s biography of Keller seems to be out of print. But Keller’s 1963 autobiography, To Light a Candle*, is available online.*

Spiritual but not religious

World War II

Previous Post

March 8, 2021

How the Pandemic Made Me a Better Scholar

Next Post

March 9, 2021 The Importance of Beth Moore in Recent American Religious History

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What type of wood was Noah’s Ark made from?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cedar Oak Gopher wood Olive wood