I\u2019m not sure that the reason millions of Brits are staying away from church is that they\u2019ve explored the case for Christianity and found it wanting. Rather, most don\u2019t know enough about Christianity to know whether they\u2019re Anglican or not. What passes for religious education in schools is a joke; more comparative anthropology than anything, with Buddhism getting about as much space as Christianity. Sunday schools are no more. Whenever I\u2019ve met secular university audiences I\u2019ve been struck by the extent to which really bright young people know next to nothing about Christian doctrine.<\/p>\n
The loss of faith has all sorts of repercussions. It was affecting the way the FA crowd on Saturday sang Abide With Me, that poignant expression of Christianity: hymn singing is one of the things young males don\u2019t do any more.<\/p>\n
But the losses go further. Yale professor David Brooks has written a much-discussed book, The Road to Character, in which he laments the way his students no longer have the language, the concepts, to talk about things like the common good, altruism, virtue. (They may of course do so in terms of evolutionary self-interest instead.)<\/p>\n
One thing religion does is enable you to talk about these things; it\u2019s more or less what Christianity is about. Even those of us who aren\u2019t Anglican should be wishing Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, well in his bid to re-evangelise England. If the CofE dies, an awful lot of good will die with it.<\/p>\n