During his recent visit to Rome, Chicago Mayor Johnson shared the following, “As far as reaching young people and even church attendance, the real encouraging thing right now is what we’re experiencing with Pope Leo the XIV, is that there are folks who are coming back into the faith.” He also stated, “I’m hopeful that as the church continues to emerge, as our communities continue to cry out for justice, that you’ll see a revival of sorts.”
I think that Mayor Johnson is correct and that the trend towards secularization in the West will eventually begin to reverse itself. In fact some recent data suggests that it already has. I offer the following reasons why we will see a resurgence of religiosity in the West in our lifetimes:
- Ecological uncertainty: As climate change continues to upend people’s lives, religion will be increasingly seen as an anchor of stability in a chaotic and uncertain world.
- Political conflict: Religion will both provide a social-emotional salve to some in relation to political upheaval. However, it will also be a source of conflict and division, that is, a way of aggregating humanity along partisan lines.
- Social justice: In contrast to the above, discourses pertaining to justice will also be a draw for many, bringing back into the fold of religion. The politics of the current and previous pope (to say nothing of certain Islamic scholars, practitioners of indigenous traditions, Buddhist exponents, and so on) will play no small part in the growth of religion in the West, especially among younger adherents.
- Moral reversion: Many will consider aspects of the progressivism of the last decades as indicative of amorality, if not immorality, leading to an embrace of religion as a source of moral authority.
- The search for meaning: Religion (along with philosophy) remains one of the most potent tools for finding meaning and addressing existential questions about the nature and meaning of existence. This capacity remains potent despite science’s profoundly useful explanatory power pertaining to the material universe.
Source: Yin, Alice. 2026. “Mayor Brandon Johnson predicts revival of faith in Chicago following Vatican trip.” Chicago Tribune, May 31, 2026. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/31/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-vatican-trip/.