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Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith & Culture

The American Religious Landscape (with Ryan Burge)

Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith & Culture

Talbot School of Theology at Biola University / Sean McDowell & Scott Rae

Talbot, Church, Christianity, Christian, Culture, Biola, Sean Mcdowell, Religion & Spirituality, Scott Rae, Think Biblically

4.81.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

America has a religious landscape unlike any other country on earth. But it is rapidly changing. In this episode, we interview Ryan Burge, a leading demographer on religious trends in America. We discuss the present state and future of evangelicalism. And we explore the growth and status of other religious groups such as Jews, Muslims, Latter-day Saints, Black Protestants, Secularism, and more. Finally, we ask Dr. Burge for his insights on how Evangelicals can best pass on their faith to the ...

Transcript

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0:00.0

The United States has a unique religious composition, and it is changing in significant and

0:07.5

surprising ways. Here to discuss the religious landscape of America and what challenges and

0:12.8

opportunities it brings to evangelicals is Professor Ryan Burge, a leading demographer of religious

0:19.1

trends, and author of the new book, The American Religious Landscape.

0:24.0

This is the Think Biblically podcast brought to by Tablet School of Theology.

0:27.7

I'm your host, Sean McDowell.

0:28.7

I'm your co-host, Scott Ray.

0:30.3

Ryan, thanks for coming back.

0:32.1

Always a pleasure to be with you guys.

0:34.0

Now, I'm going to start where your book starts, because the opening line of your book,

0:39.2

you say that there's no other country on earth that has the religious composition of the U.S.

0:44.9

So what is that composition and what makes it so unique?

0:49.3

So America today is 63% Christian, about 30% non-religious, and about 7% everybody else.

0:58.3

That's Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, you know, Wiccans, Jedi's, you name it.

1:04.3

That's not 7%.

1:05.5

No country looks like that for a couple of reasons.

1:08.8

One is if you take our kind of closest

1:11.5

cultural neighbors like Western Europe, for instance, they're vastly more secular than we are.

1:17.2

I mean, many of the Nordic countries have attendance rates that are below 5%. So, you know,

1:23.0

we can't really compare ourselves to Sweden or Norway or Denmark, but even Italy and France don't

1:27.4

look like the secular numbers are way higher there. And then so let's say let's compare us to Sweden or Norway or Denmark, but even Italy and France don't look like.

1:27.9

The secular numbers are way higher there. And then so let's say let's compare us to a really

...

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