What the 2025 Theology Survey Reveals About American Faith – ZENIT – English

Mission
Most Americans continue to profess belief in a Trinitarian God Photo: Freepik
What emerges in the data is less an abandonment of Christianity than its ongoing reinterpretation — a search for transcendence conducted in the vocabulary of tradition, yet shaped profoundly by the priorities of modern individualism
(ZENIT News / Washington, 11.19.2025).- Every two years, researchers take the theological pulse of the United States. The result is never a tidy snapshot but rather a mosaic of convictions, doubts, inherited traditions, and reinterpretations. The 2025 State of American Theology Study — the sixth of its kind since 2014 — paints a portrait of a country where spiritual instinct remains strong, but coherence is elusive.
Commissioned by Ligonier Ministries and conducted by Lifeway Research, the survey queried 3,001 adults across the nation. What emerges is less a fixed doctrinal landscape than a restless negotiation between centuries-old Christian teaching and the shifting cultural winds of the 21st century.
This year’s findings show Americans remarkably unified on some points, deeply fractured on others, and often holding beliefs that clash openly with one another.
The God Americans Believe In
Across the theological spectrum, one conviction stands nearly universal: Americans want a God who loves without distinction. More than eight in ten respondents affirmed that divine love extends equally to all. Even among those who doubt or reject traditional doctrines, the idea of an impartial, benevolent deity seems to serve as a shared moral anchor.
Beyond that consensus, the portrait becomes more complex. Most Americans continue to profess belief in a Trinitarian God, a view that has held steady for over a decade. Yet many of these same respondents simultaneously express beliefs incompatible with historic Christian teaching. Half deny Christ’s divinity; over half reduce the Holy Spirit to an impersonal force. A significant minority even believe the Spirit can authorize actions forbidden in Scripture.
The result is a theological patchwork: Americans affirm the language of Christian tradition while quietly redesigning its meaning.
Human Nature: Optimism Against the Grain
If classical Christianity emphasizes the woundedness of the human heart, Americans seem determined to insist on human goodness. Two out of three respondents describe people as “good by nature,” and nearly three quarters say everyone enters the world already innocent before God. These convictions — stable across all previous editions of the study — reveal a confidence in human moral capacity that defies much of historic theology.
Yet in an interesting counterpoint, more than half the country maintains that righteousness before God depends not on good works but on faith in Jesus Christ. And while few Americans declare that sin warrants eternal punishment, the fact that nearly a quarter affirm this stark teaching remains striking in an age of moral relativism.
The Bible: Revered, Questioned, Reinterpreted
No section of the study illustrates American ambivalence more clearly than attitudes toward Scripture. Half the population upholds the full accuracy of the Bible, while a near-equal number sees it as a collection of ancient myths containing useful moral stories. A growing segment — though slightly smaller than in 2022 — says modern science has disproved the Bible’s claims.
Yet despite this skepticism, confidence in salvation through Christ alone remains strong. Nearly six in ten Americans affirm this doctrine, and more than a quarter accept the idea that God chose the saved before the dawn of creation — a teaching many churchgoers themselves struggle to explain.
Heaven, Hell, and the Final Reckoning
Eschatology — the theology of last things — remains one of the more stable areas of belief. Most Americans expect a final judgment, and a majority still believe in an eternal hell. These numbers have fluctuated only slightly over the decade, suggesting a continuing cultural intuition that life ultimately culminates in accountability.
Church and Community: Lone Spirituality Ascends
Perhaps no trend better captures the modern American experience than the rise of solitary devotion. Nearly two thirds of respondents believe worship at home can meaningfully replace attendance at a local congregation. The pandemic-era spike in this sentiment has softened slightly but remains well above pre-2020 levels.
Only one in three Americans believes Christians are obliged to join a local church — a figure that would have baffled most believers throughout history. Moreover, a majority says religious convictions should not influence political decisions, reflecting a widening separation between personal faith and public life.
Authority, Morality, and the Cultural Crossroads
On questions of morality and authority, Americans continue to divide sharply. Two thirds affirm a traditional definition of marriage, yet nearly four in ten say gender is a matter of personal choice rather than biological fact. Half believe abortion is sinful, and a similar number declare the Bible authoritative in moral decision-making — but more than 40 percent contend that biblical prohibitions on same-sex behavior no longer apply.
Perhaps most telling is this: nearly a third believe God is uninterested in their daily choices, a view that stands in tension with every major religious tradition but reflects a growing cultural instinct toward spiritual detachment.
A Country of Spiritual Instinct, Not Systematic Theology
The 2025 study reveals not a collapse of belief, nor a uniform slide toward secularism, but rather a complicated reimagining of faith. Americans remain deeply religious in instinct, yet eclectic in doctrine. They want a loving God but not necessarily a demanding one; a moral order but not one that interferes too much; a spiritual identity without rigid boundaries.
What emerges in the data is less an abandonment of Christianity than its ongoing reinterpretation — a search for transcendence conducted in the vocabulary of tradition, yet shaped profoundly by the priorities of modern individualism.
Whether this mix produces clarity or confusion depends largely on one’s vantage point. But one thing is certain: in the United States, theology is no longer inherited. It is assembled.
Thank you for reading our content. If you would like to receive ZENIT’s daily e-mail news, you can subscribe for free through this link.
 

View all articles
Licenciado en filosofía por el Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, de Roma, y “veterano” colaborador de medios impresos y digitales sobre argumentos religiosos y de comunicación. En la cuenta de Twitter: https://twitter.com/web_pastor, habla de Dios e internet y Church and media: evangelidigitalización.”
If you liked this article, support ZENIT now with a donation
To be celebrated from September 25-27, 2026 in Rome
The encounter lasted only a short while, yet it left a distinct impression—an intimate gesture at a time when the Church is preparing for one of its most significant milestones of the decade: the 800th anniversary of the death of the Poverello of Assisi, to be commemorated in 2026.

source