In the introduction to After Secularisation: the Present and Future of British Catholicism (CTS Press, 2025), Prof Stephen Bullivant points out that if secularisation is the process of religion ‘declining steeply in power, popularity and plausibility’, then it cannot go on forever. It might end when religion disappears completely from society, but more plausibly it will leave some remnant behind. The green shoots of growth that the authors of this book discern in various parts of the Church in Britain suggest there may be a significant remnant. They go on to ask what it will look like, and how the Church can make the most of it.
9:00 AM
Stand out or fade away
New research suggests Catholicism in Britain will endure not by blending in, but by embracing clear and confident forms of identity
Joseph Shaw

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