Overhearing a Christian Apology to the Nones

Book excerpt: While the steady increase of the religiously unaffiliated Nones in America has generated anxious responses about rising secularism and loss of national identity, this book suggests a wider meaning-making approach wherein the Nones are seen as valuable dialogue partners necessary in this pivotal moment for the revealing of still hidden truths about culture, spirituality, and religion. Christians who overhear this dialogue may find upon self-reflection an emerging truth about their relationships, embedded stories, level of faith development, and susceptibility to a culturally conditioned, transactional religion. Nones who choose to engage in dialogue may find that the “nothingness” they bring to the dialogue is more significant than they realize, revealing truths of an apophatic spiritual path necessary for generating a transformational faith of freedom and capable of rebalancing a divisive, consumer-driven society. The religious and the not-religious, who are often seen as being on opposite sides of an imagined religious threshold, may instead be seen as standing together in a liminal space that opens in wordless silence to yet unseen possibilities and from which emerge new stories aligned with the heart of Creation.