(WNG) The Nebuchadnezzar contagion–America’s “existential crisis of meaning” is similar to the Babylonian king’s crisis, and the solution is the same, too

A recent survey found that one in every three Americans describe themselves as being in an existential crisis of meaning. The percentage jumps to over half of Gen Z. That means if you meet two people between the ages of 14 and 29, then one of them likely has a deep sense of lostness regarding his or her place in the cosmos. Those bleak facts can be taken either as a reason to shrug our shoulders as a pessimistic sign of the times or as a golden opportunity for those of us to know the One who bestows enduring existential significance.

The same study found that a sizable 37 percent of Americans said “their entire lives feel out of their control,” with 52 percent of Gen Z expressing that same panicked sense of powerlessness. As a theologian, I read such numbers as what we may call “the Nebuchadnezzar contagion.” Two-and-a-half millennia ago, prior to what we may describe as a steep decline in his mental health, the ancient Babylonian king strolled his palace roof, surveyed the landscape, and declared, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).

Such pretended self-sovereignty is rampant in our age in which the cult of self-worship manifests in the belief of 84 percent of Americans that “enjoying yourself is the highest goal of life,” 86 percent believing that you must “pursue the things you desire most,” and 91 percent affirming the statement: “To find yourself, look within yourself.” In a sense, we’re all Nubuchadnezzars now.

Yet we end up as what David Foster Wallace called “lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation.” It turns out that living like the Babylonian king “for the glory of my majesty,” has terrible outcomes today just as it did in the ancient near east.

Read it all.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar II, conquered Jerusalem in two major stages due to rebellions by the Kingdom of Judah. [1, 2] https://t.co/QxGtq2Ah0u

— Julie Parker (@JulieParker144) October 19, 2026