Thinking Fellows: “Thinking About a Post-Christian West”

Podcast: Thinking Fellows (1517 Podcasts)
Date: March 4, 2026
Hosts: Caleb Keith (A), Adam Francisco (B), Scott Keith (C), Bruce Hillman (D)
Total Runtime (content): ~41 minutes

Episode Overview

This episode brings the Thinking Fellows together for a roundtable on what each host is working on in writing, research, and teaching. The hosts use their current projects to spark a wide-ranging conversation about theology, apologetics, and the shifting religious landscape—particularly the phenomenon of the “spiritual but not religious” and the evolving challenge of evangelism in a post-Christian, often “pagan” West. They share updates on significant publishing efforts and conferences, key trends in faith transmission, and offer insightful commentary on confronting new cultural and philosophical shifts affecting Christianity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Are the Fellows Working On?

Adam Francisco (B)

• Recent Publication:
  The Reasoned Defense of the Faith (apologetics) just released.

  • [01:32] “That book just came out what I think five, six days ago and it's…connected to the nexus of apologetic stuff I'm working on.”

• Upcoming Projects:

  • Organizing an apologetics conference (March 13–14, Texas).
  • Collaborative project with Discovery Institute and Stephen C. Meyer at Cambridge University:
    • Recording the “mother of all apologetics courses,” which will reach millions, distributed in multiple languages using AI dubbing.
      [02:14] “It’s going to be multi language…when they run it through AI, my mouth is going to change and out it's going to come Chinese or Persian or whatever.”

• Next Book:
  The Turk at the Door (on Luther, Islam, and threat to Western Christendom in the 16th century), releasing after Scott’s new book.

• Current Research:

  • Studying the “spiritual but not religious” phenomenon and its implications for apologetics.
    [03:11] “A lot of apologetics training is organized around the objections that atheists and higher critics…have, and that's a relatively small percentage…a large swath fall into that spiritual but not religious category.”
  • The issue is epistemological: “It’s a turn away from an external objective word to the innards.” [04:00]
  • Also researching the concept of the “church militant” and “church triumphant” in ecclesiology.

Scott Keith (C)

• Book Release:
  Being Family: Passing Down the Faith Through the Generations

  • Out May 5 (pre-order available). Emphasizes the importance of marriage, parenthood, and faith transmission in the family.
    [05:22] “It’s kind of a follow up to Being Dad…but dealing more with how these interactions happen within the whole family…why getting married…having kids is important…why raising them in the church…is important.”

• Current Focus:

  • Deep engagement with Pagan America by John Daniel Davidson (and related writing):
    • Argues America hasn’t just gone secular but has witnessed “a turn to paganism,” with novel religious practices and rituals.
      [08:20] “There’s some real creepy portions…movements online teaching women to set up altars to perform worship for their abortions…paintings that look like sacrifices to these old gods. It’s just really disgusting.”
  • Reflects on the transition in apologetics—from answering intellectual objections to grappling with new forms of spiritual and moral crisis.

• Other Engagements:

  • Ongoing internal collaboration with Adam on the “post-Christian” theme and apologetic strategy.
  • Recommends MP Woodward’s novels for geopolitical hypotheticals.

Bruce Hillman (D)

• Forthcoming Book:

  • On Ecclesiastes: Not a commentary, but an exploration of its wisdom quest and a Christ-centered reinterpretation.
    [10:15] “First half…the guy who wrote Ecclesiastes…went on a wisdom quest…the second half, in light of Christ’s coming, what does Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection have to say about these conclusions?”
  • Release window: August to early November.

• Teaching Initiative:

  • Developing a new 1517 Academy course with Adam on world religions (target: Spring next year). [12:20] “We’ll each tackle a bunch of religions and talk about those and what they believe.”

• Research Interests:

  • Examining a range of theodicies (defenses of a good God amidst evil and suffering).
  • Studying gratitude in Scripture, hypothesizing it relates to suffering (especially “God’s silence”). [13:42] “There is a particular kind of suffering in Scripture…a spiritual sickness…the God of my theological knowledge…no longer matches my experience. And in the midst of that apparent contradiction, what do I do?”

Caleb Keith (A)

• Recent Writing:

  • 1517 blog articles—“Sanctification in the Lutheran Confessions” and “Christ as the Fulfiller of All Things.”
    [15:49] “One was an overview of sanctification…another on Christ as fulfillment, starting from those Matthew 1 & 2 texts that use fulfillment so frequently.”

• Content Expansion:

  • Producing more 1517 video content for YouTube—short, high-quality, both stand-alone and event footage (Here We Still Stand conference).

• Ongoing Reflections/Writing:

  • Current article in progress on the “rise of the non-church going Christian” and its impact.
    • Cites Pew data: 51% of self-identified Christians now attend church less than once a month.
      [18:47] “…the rise of the non-church going Christian…we’re now to the point…about 51%…do not regularly go to church.”
    • The conversion deficit: “For every one person converted to Christianity in the U.S. in the last decade from another religion, six people leave Christianity.” [21:50]
  • Concern over the weakening connection to doctrine/tradition and the rise of merely “moral” or “cultural” Christianity.
  • Critique: Digital/virtual church reinforces the trend away from embodied, communal Christian life. [24:10] “Digital church is bad, too…can you even attend church online? I think the answer…is no.”

2. New Phenomena: “Atheist Christians” and Cultural Religion

• Bruce shares discovery:

  • The emergence of self-styled “atheist Christians”: individuals who reject belief in God but retain Christian values, Christian language, and church attendance as a cultural framework.
    [25:56] “From what I can gather, it's people who have left Christianity but don't want to leave Christian ideology behind.”
  • This trend mirrors longstanding patterns among “cultural Jews” and now “cultural Catholics” and Hindus, who see religious identity as heritage/social identity, not faith.

• Adam notes:

  • The challenge of apologetics is heightened:
    [31:35] “It's much harder because…every individual is their own authority or perhaps even deity…There is no common epistemology.”
  • Expressive individualism and loss of shared standards complicate establishing common ground for argumentation.

• Common ground for evangelism and apologetics is shrinking; Paul’s approach at the Areopagus (Acts 17) is cited as a model—using “nominal common ground” (quoting pagan poets) as starting points.

3. Generational Trends & Faith Transmission

• Caleb identifies a pattern:
  Gen X as the “Christian but not churchgoing” generation, which gave rise to Millennials and Gen Zers who are “nones” (no religious affiliation).
  [36:35] “I'm gonna blame Gen X…a pollster calls him and says, ‘Hey, are you Christian?’ ‘Yeah bro, yeah, I’m Christian.’ … ‘Do you go to church?’ ‘Nah, haven't done that since the 80s or 90s.’”
• This creates a fragile link—cultural Christianity without practice—accelerating decline in genuine belief and membership.
• Faith transmission now faces a steeper uphill battle. The hosts urge congregations to see the “mission field” as including their own children and to double down on catechesis/retention. [22:56] “While leaving out any sort of…catechesis and retention…statistically…we are strictly not doing enough kind of catechesis and retention of the people who say they are members of our churches.”

4. Theodicy, Suffering, and “God’s Silence”

• Bruce’s Research:
  Explores a distinctive kind of suffering: spiritual anguish from God's apparent absence.
  [14:17] “I'm calling…’the suffering in suffering’…the God of my theological knowledge…the God I've learned about, no longer matches my experience. In the midst of that…what do I do?”
• Connections are drawn between biblical lament, doubt, and contemporary doubt among those who feel increasingly spiritually isolated.

5. Memorable Quotes & Thought-Provoking Moments

• Adam Francisco on “spiritual but not religious” apologetics:
  [03:11] “If apologetics is a tool in the evangelistic task…when somebody asks, it kind of misses a large swath of people…that fall into that spiritual but not religious category.”
• Scott Keith on America turning pagan:
  [08:31] “Americans…is post-Christian for sure…but…it’s gone pagan. There’s some real creepy portions…altars in their house to perform altar worship to their abortions…like the old gods.”
• Bruce Hillman on God’s silence:
  [14:17] “There is a particular kind of suffering in Scripture…which I’m calling…the suffering in suffering, a spiritual sickness…God…no longer matches my experience. What do I do?”
• Caleb Keith on the risk of churchless Christianity:
  [18:47] “We’re now to the point where according to Pew…it’s about 51%. So we’ve crossed the halfway line of Christians…who do not regularly go to church.”
• Bruce on “atheist Christians”:
  [25:56] “He’s like…I’m an atheist…but Christianity is the language and the story by which I think and process the world…So I still want to live my life using this story…”
• Adam on modern apologetic difficulty:
  [31:52] “Every individual is their own authority or perhaps even deity…There is no common epistemology…”
• Caleb on generational drift:
  [36:38] “It was, by the time it got to me guys, it was D’s get degrees, which is kind of scary to think about. I’m gonna blame Gen X…”

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |------------|-------------------------------------------------------| | 01:32 | Adam on new apologetics projects, upcoming conference | | 02:14 | Announcement of major apologetics course at Cambridge | | 02:58 | Adam’s new book: The Turk at the Door | | 03:11 | “Spiritual but not religious” as apologetic challenge | | 05:16 | Scott on Being Family, family faith transmission | | 07:41 | Decline of faith being driven by non-intellectual factors | | 08:20 | Discussion of “Pagan America” – occult/pagan trends | | 09:56 | Bruce’s new book on Ecclesiastes and Christ | | 12:20 | Upcoming 1517 Academy course on world religions | | 13:42 | Bruce’s research: suffering/God’s silence in scripture| | 15:49 | Caleb’s writing on sanctification and fulfillment | | 18:47 | Rise of the “non-church attending Christian” (Pew data)| | 21:50 | Six people leave Christianity for every convert—conversion crisis| | 24:10 | The problem with digital/online church | | 25:30 | Rise of “atheist Christians” and cultural religious identity | | 31:35 | Adam on individualism, “no common epistemology” | | 35:57 | Rise of “religious nones” from “churchless Christianity”| | 36:35 | Generational disconnect: Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z | | 40:12 | Suffering/theodicy as a hidden apologetic issue |

Interconnections & Takeaways

• Shift in Apologetic Audience:
  The old apologetic battle lines (science, reason, atheism) are receding, replaced by the post-Christian, “spiritual but not religious,” expressive individualist, and even “atheist Christian.” This necessitates rethinking engagement methods, emphasizing listening and existential questions.

• Transmission Failure is Generational:
  The breakdown comes less from hostile external culture than from weak embodiment of Christianity (non-churchgoing, thin doctrine/tradition) within Christian families and communities. Retention and deep-rooted formation are now urgent priorities.

• Faith As Cultural Ethos:
  A growing number relate to Christianity (or other religions) as cultural or ethical traditions, not beliefs—making for a more slippery identity and presenting new challenges, as well as opportunities for ministry.

• Suffering and Meaning as Evangelistic Openings:
  The universal experience of evil, pain, and God’s apparent silence could be a critical entry point—reframing apologetics around existential ache, hope, and the promise of meaning in Christ.

Conclusion

This episode orbits around how to proclaim the Gospel and “be family” in a profoundly shifted and uncertain spiritual environment. Each host’s work highlights different angles of this question—from global apologetics and the legacy of Luther, to family formation, to the longing and silence of suffering, to the search for wisdom in a post-Christian context. Wrestling with both data and anecdotes, the Fellows call listeners to attention: the harvest is here, but the fields—and the weeds—are changing fast.

Recommended Episodes, Articles, and Courses

• “Spiritual But Not Religious” (with Michael Horton)
• Scott Keith’s “Being Family” (Pre-Order at shop.1517.org)
• Adam Francisco’s Reasoned Defense of the Faith and The Turk at the Door
• Forthcoming Ecclesiastes book by Bruce Hillman
• 1517 Academy’s upcoming course on World Religions

For more, visit 1517.org for articles, podcasts, and resources on these current topics and more. Show notes include all relevant links and contributor pages for further exploration.