New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat frequently writes about religion. Douthat describes himself as a conservative Roman Catholic and notes the challenge his convictions at times have created working in a predominantly secular environment. However, he observes a cultural shift that has occurred in the past 10 to 15 years which prompts his new book, “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious” (Zondervan, 2025). 

According to Douthat, “the heyday of the New Atheism,” with its combative attitude toward all things religious, has passed (1). Secularism, with its purely materialistic conception of the universe, has proved unsatisfying. People are “unhappy with their unbelief” (2). 

Several themes Douthat develops will sound familiar to readers who are also familiar with philosopher Charles Taylor (another Roman Catholic author) and his influential work, “A Secular Age.” Douthat uses Taylor’s description of “disenchantment” to portray the materialist’s view of the world, cut off from any supernatural influence or interaction, leaving us with a shallow existence. Under the influence of secularism, God’s presence became excluded from our “social imaginary,” to use another term from Taylor. 

However, interest in and openness to the supernatural has now returned. This new situation, Douthat believes, provides a unique opportunity to lead people toward religious commitment. His book proposes “a blueprint for thinking your way from secularism into religion, from doubt into belief” (4). 

And yet Douthat also recognizes a difficulty in our pluralistic age. With so many religious options, how is one to choose? To use Taylor’s language, the presence of many different forms of spirituality creates “cross pressures” as one explores the supernatural. Douthat aims to address this as well, highlighting the significance of historic faiths, describing both similarities and differences, in seeking to guide people toward the truth. 

Douthat offers not so much a defense of Christianity but something he believes is more basic: a defense of “mere religion” that argues for something greater than a vague openness to spirituality. Along the way, Douthat leads readers through various religious alternatives, concluding with a case study on why he is a Christian in the Roman Catholic tradition.  

Douthat begins by challenging the premises of secularism (chs.1-3). Although there is greater openness to the supernatural, the pull of materialism remains. It too serves as a cross pressure, inhibiting an unashamed investigation of faith and commitment to a religious tradition. Materialism has been reinforced through an approach to science spanning several centuries that limits “Official Knowledge” to what may be discovered about the natural world through human reason (69). 

However, Douthat argues, the progress of science has provided more reasons to believe in something greater than the natural world, not less. The religious perspective, he claims, offers a more satisfying account for what we observe and experience than the materialistic alternative. 

Although revolutionary figures in the history of science, such as Copernicus and Darwin, seemingly decentered humanity from any significant position within the grand scope of the cosmos, continuing scientific progress has demonstrated just how incredibly unlikely it is that, through time and chance, a universe would come to be that generates and sustains biological life (26). Here, Douthat is presenting what’s known as the fine-tuning argument, suggesting that the precise conditions of our world indicate a divine creator rather than a chance occurrence. 

Douthat presses further into some of the stranger features of quantum physics, where human observation appears to have a decisive role in determining certain physical states, suggesting that mind precedes matter and arguing by analogy that a reasonable conclusion is that a “larger form of consciousness” is responsible for the world we inhabit (30). 

Douthat also explores features of human consciousness and the limitations of neuroscience, despite great advances in mapping the human brain, in satisfactorily explaining the uniqueness of how we experience the world. The subjective nature of our mental states, including self-awareness and the experience of sounds, smells, and tastes to which beauty or pleasure are ascribed, transcend material explanation (46-47). 

Greater knowledge has led to greater questions. And Douthat argues, “The simplest answer is still the religious one” (62). According to Douthat, “the long arc of science, which initially seems to bend away from religion . . . ultimately bends back by confirming humanity’s unique position in a universe strangely suited to both our bodies and our minds” (63). 

Despite the advance of science, and the secular assumption that an increased understanding of the natural world will inevitably diminish belief in the supernatural, spiritual experiences continue to abound. Douthat provides accounts of occurrences that defy mere rational explanation, such as near-death experiences, unexplained healings, and more direct spiritual encounters, even from those who do not consider themselves religious and are embarrassed by such incidents. 

The attempts to explain them away, Douthat argues, are unsatisfying and display an unreasonable commitment to materialism rather than accepting the reality of the supernatural to which many lines of evidence persistently point.

After exposing the deficiencies in a materialistic worldview and arguing for the reasonableness of belief in the supernatural, Douthat guides readers from openness toward belief to religious commitment (chs.4-7). Douthat concedes, “Acknowledging the apparent ordering of the universe doesn’t tell us what kind of divine intelligence might have ordered it” (111). 

Where is one to begin? He argues that the major religious traditions provide wisdom, a place to start. It’s dangerous to strike out on your own so we should begin with some map. A religious tradition provides community as well as safety. After all, we should not assume all spiritual experiences are good.

While not arguing that all religions are equal, Douthat claims neither are they simply antithetical. It’s not a matter of true or untrue, but of more true and less true (128). Douthat believes that through the major world religions “some connection to the ultimate reality [is] being sought,” and that “even a false or flawed religion will probably contain some intimations of that reality” (128-29). In the end, he argues “that a sincere desire to find and know the truth can fail to reach truth’s fullness but still find its reward” (129). 

For instance, if you are a Methodist but Sunni Islam is “the truest religion in the world,” you are not completely lost according to Douthat, because “you are arguably worshiping the same God … through the mediation of a figure, Jesus, who is revered in Islam” (177). So “you have at least true-ish belief” and have “taken a large step toward the fullness of the truth” (178). 

Douthat appeals to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), where the only servant judged is the one who did nothing with what was entrusted to him. He claims that “you will not be penalized for failing to reach the same exact destination as your neighbor . . . punishment is reserved for refusing to choose or act, period” (179). 

Sincerely seeking after truth, which Douthat believes is evident to varying degrees in the world’s major religions, is of utmost importance even where errors remain. He commends committing to a religion in hopes that it will lead one ever closer to the full truth about God.

Douthat himself believes that the truth about God is most fully and finally expressed in the Christian tradition, particularly Roman Catholicism, which he addresses in his final chapter. He values its structure but also its breadth, what he calls “the capaciousness of Catholicism” (187). 

Douthat acknowledges that his description of other religions as possessing truth and potentially some sort of saving value may sound as though he’s advocating a form of religious pluralism in which every path is equal. However, he says that when he recites the Nicene Creed, he means it (193). He affirms that “God has acted in history through Jesus of Nazareth in a way that differs from every other tradition and experience and revelation” (193). He believes that Christian revelation, in particular the Gospels, “exert a kind of general interpretive control over how we read all the other religious data” (193). 

He argues for the uniqueness of the New Testament, the historical reliability of its witness, and its compelling account of God’s intrusion to address evil through his Son’s sacrifice on the cross. This he calls “the defining revelation of His purposes” (202). And we should believe.

While appreciating Douthat’s insight into the need to address not only the continuing pressures of secularism but also the growing number of those who profess to be “spiritual but not religious,” Protestant readers will rightly feel uneasy with Douthat’s approach toward “mere religion,” even as he affirms the comprehensive truth of Christian Scripture. 

The value Douthat attributes to other religions is a feature of the “capaciousness” of his Roman Catholic theology that is contested by Protestants. While this has not always been a consistent feature of Roman Catholic teaching, it is expressed more clearly with the Second Vatican Council. 

Catholicism does not recognize the pervasive impact of sin as taught in Reformed theology, expressed in the doctrine of total depravity. And thus, the religions of the world are presented as sincere attempts, guided by natural law and reason, to seek after God. While Roman Catholic theology maintains the absolute truth of Christianity, nonetheless other religions may serve as preparation for salvation. 

Reformed theology recognizes a more radical break between God and humanity due to sin. There are no sincere attempts to seek after God apart from the regenerating work of his Spirit, but instead an unceasing cycle of suppression and substitution, evident in attempts to repress the truth about God and replace him with what function as idols (Romans 1:18-32). 

This may take religious or irreligious forms, exhibit rational or irrational tendencies. But whether irreligious or religious, neither comes closer to God, and both must be equally challenged as we find in Scripture. Better guides for understanding and engaging other religions are J.H. Bavinck’s “The Church Between Temple and Mosque” and Daniel Strange’s “Their Rock is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions.”

Douthat stresses that “God isn’t just hiding from us” (187), that “God is not trying to trick us, that . . . the universe offers us clues” (202). Indeed. But God offers more than clues. His revelation is clear. We know him from creation (Psalm 19:1-3; Romans 1:19-20). We know him from providence (Acts 17:26-27). We know him through conscience as those created in his image (Romans 2:15). We cannot escape him. 

The problem is what we do with all the evidence. Due to our sinful nature, we attempt to hide from him, even as Adam and Eve did after their first sin (Genesis 3:8). And like them, God must call us, and confront us, which he does through the word of Christ now proclaimed throughout the world. 

When Paul addresses the Athenians in Acts 17, he does not commend them though they “are very religious” (22). Instead, he confronts them with their idolatry. He calls them to repentance as he proclaims the truth in Christ. The world’s religions, even with approximations of truth, are always parodies which attempt to suppress what God has revealed in his world and his word, substituting something else in his place. Rather than commending false religions as steps in the right direction, we must challenge them as Paul does, with gentleness and respect, yet with conviction and clarity that the only hope of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ the Son. 

We must, as Douthat argues, make the most of the time, as there is growing dissatisfaction with secular materialism. But we must not encourage any to find solace merely in religious commitments. They are nothing more than an alternative means to suppress the truth in response to the failure of a secular worldview.

Rob Edwards is associate professor of apologetics and pastoral theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.