JUST FYI POD: CULTURE: "What, if Anything, Will Replace Mainline Protestantism?"

The overarching theme of JUST FYI POD: CULTURE‘s third season is: “The Future of American Christianity: A Conversation in Ten Questions.” On today’s episode, my cohost Amy Welborn and I focus on the following question: “What, if Anything, Will Replace Mainline Protestantism?” We approach this question in two main ways. First, we examine a handful of new religious surveys, including (but not limited to) a major study released in December 2025 by the Pew Research Center. They all paint a similar picture: after decades of diminution, American religious affiliation, belief, and practice have begun to level off. But this overarching period of “stasis” comes with a number of qualifiers: markers of diminishment in one quarter suggest pockets of renewal in others. Next, we ponder what these findings tell us about American religious life going forward. If, as political scientist and statistician Ryan Burge has recently argued, the decline of mainline Protestantism is irreversible, then is some other religious institution poised to take its place?

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