Chine McDonald analyses the claims that young people are showing a renewed interest in spirituality. 17/04/2026
From the boxing ring to The Traitors, something has shifted. We’re seeing a renewed interest in faith and spirituality, particularly amongst young people.
Chine McDonald analyses the claims for the Church Times.
Read the full article here.
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Researcher, Esmé Partridge, was quoted in The Spectator about her research on Gen Z Christians. 30/03/2026
Similar patterns have been seen by Esmé Partridge, a researcher at the Christian think tank Theos who is currently studying new churchgoing patterns among young adults for the Church of England.
“In my research,” said Partridge, “I’ve been able to speak to over thirty young people who have recently started attending church. Naturally there are whole variety of positive influences that have personally led them there – social media, discovering Christian authors like C. S. Lewis, even learning about other world religions – but perhaps the reason these explorations are occurring now rather that say, ten years ago, is because of the absence of hostility towards Christianity in mainstream culture and the breaking down of barriers that once closed it off as an area of spiritual exploration. We’ve moved beyond both the Boomer rebellion against religion and the New Atheism of the early 2010s – today’s climate is one of curiosity and openness.”
Read the full article by Bijan Omrani in The Spectator here.
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Freedom of religion and belief extends to all faiths and none, or it is meaningless, argues Hannah Rich. 27/03/2026
Senior Researcher, Hannah Rich, writes for the Church Times responding to Nick Timothy MP’s comments on Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast with an iftar meal and call to prayer in Trafalgar Square.
Read the full article here.
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What if the so–called “AI doomers” are right? Watch Nathan Mladin’s research seminar for The Faraday Institute. 10/03/2026
What if the so–called “AI doomers” are right, just not in the way they imagine?
In this lecture at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Dr Nathan Mladin suggests AI existential risk discourse is best read as a form of secular apocalyptic literature, and argues that the deeper threat it unveils is anthropological: AI is entrenching a diminished, shrunken view of what it means to be human. We expect more and more of machines and think less and less of ourselves – anthropological pessimism and idolatrous faith in technology feeding off each other in a condition he calls “techno–nihilism”. Reclaiming richer visions of what it means to be human, and to flourish, he argues, is now an urgent task.
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Hannah Rich speaks on the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life’s event on Faith in Education. 04/03/2026
The Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life hosted an online panel discussion which convened professionals, researchers and specialists in religious education (RE) to talk about the continuing importance and relevance of the subject in Britain. The discussion covered topics including what skills students gain from RE that they might not from other subjects on the curriculum, the value of religious literacy, and what good RE looks like.
Senior researcher, Hannah Rich, features on the panel alongside Alexis Stones (Senior teaching fellow, PGCE & MA Religious Education at University College London), and Dr Kathryn Wright (Chief Executive at Culham St Gabriel’s Trust). The discussion was moderated by presenter and broadcaster Rae Duke.
Interested in worldviews and education? Watch our film ‘Nobody Stands Nowhere’ here.
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]]>Nick Spencer reviews ‘The New Dark Age’ by Nigel Biggar for the Church Times. 13/02/2026
”The New Dark Age, which, although short, bristles with examples of academic vices and institutional weaknesses.”
Nick Spencer reviews ‘The New Dark Age: Why liberals must win the culture wars’ by Nigel Biggar for the Church Times.
Read it here.
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]]>Nick Spencer unpacks the relationship between Bible–reading and mass literacy for the Church Times. 06/02/2026
”In our ever spiralling, splenetic, and spiteful culture wars, there is at least one thing on which we can all agree, whether we be woke Liberal or gammon Reform: reading is good for you.”
Nick Spencer unpacks the relationship between Bible–reading and mass literacy for the Church Times.
Read it here.
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Nick Spencer and Rob Barward–Symmons feature in the Times. 16/01/2026
Nick Spencer and Rob Barward–Symmons were quoted in the Times commenting on whether Gen Z men are becoming increasingly warm towards Christianity.
Read the article here.
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Nick Spencer was quoted in the Guardian concerning the CofE response to far–right Christianity. 28/12/2025
In January, C of E bishops will discuss the church’s response to Christian nationalism and the far right at one of their regular meetings. Nick Spencer, a senior fellow at the Christian thinktank Theos, who is embarking on a two–year study of Christian nationalism, said the C of E faced a genuine dilemma. If it embraced rightwing activists proclaiming newfound Christianity, it would “get its head kicked in”; if it slammed the door in their face, it would be “missionally–speaking a catastrophe”.
The church is “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”, he said. “I don’t think it can remain silent, but its response risks underlining the narrative that the C of E is only for the comfortable middle–class.”
You can read the full article in the Guardian here.
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Researcher George Lapshynov was quoted in UnHerd article unpacking the increased popularity of Eastern Orthodoxy amongst young men. 26/12/2025
Lapshynov points out that this can leave them exposed. “Most Orthodox priests don’t have an online presence,” he tells me, “which creates a vacuum into which less official voices can enter. That means the [online] space is saturated with people not eligible to preach.” More often than not, that space is filled by the Orthobro.
Read the full article in UnHerd here.
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Chine McDonald writes for the Financial Times on the surprising places we find spiritual practices. 25/12/2025
Read the Financial Times article by Director, Chine McDonald here.
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Esmé Partridge discusses The Quiet Revival for Times Radio. 24/12/2025
Esmé Partridge appears on Times Radio alongside the Bishop of Winchester discussing the rise of Gen–Z church attendance over Christmas and what could be behind it.
Listen back here.
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Nick Spencer appears on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme discussing the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ carol concert. 14/12/2025
“Put the Christ back in Christmas” was the title of the carol concert organised by Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom in central London yesterday. We hear from one of the organisers, Pastor Rikki Doolan, and from Nick Spencer, senior fellow at the Christian think tank Theos, who is studying the rise of Christian Nationalism in the UK.
Listen to the segment on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme here from 31:45.
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Our report by Hannah Rich, ‘Beyond the Classroom’, was featured in the Tablet. 17/11/2025
The think tank Theos, which researches the relationship between religion and society in the contemporary world, has called for religious education to be encouraged and facilitated “in a far broader range of contexts than just the classroom”.
Aili Winstanley Channer unpacks our latest report Beyond the Classroom for the Tablet.
Read it here.
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Nathan Mladin speaks on BBC Radio Ulster’s Everyday Ethics on AI and the Afterlife. 02/11/2025
Grief bots and avatars promise to preserve our loved ones from beyond the grave.
Dr Nathan Mladin appears alongside Dr Elaine Storkey and Professor Victoria Haneman discussing the ethical concerns of grief–tech. Nathan draws upon his report AI and the Afterlife.
Tune in here.
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to find out how you can help our work.]]>
Chine McDonald speaks discusses the challenges surrounding being a woman in faith leadership. 26/10/2025
Have women shattered the glass ceiling of faith leadership?
Chine McDonald appears alongside the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, and Zara Mohammed discussing the challenges of leadership in faith traditions on BBC Radio Wales’ ‘All Things Considered’.
Tune in here.
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]]>Nick Spencer appears on the panel for BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking. 10/10/2025
Rapid developments in science are leading to ethical dilemmas that scientists alone can’t answer. Where does that leave their authority?
Nick Spencer appears on BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking alongside Dafydd Mills Daniel, Dr Sandra Knapp, and Hannah Devlin discussing the status of science.
Tune in here.
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]]>Chine McDonald unpacks the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for Sarah Mullally, the new Archbishop of Canterbury designate. 06/10/2025
She may have shattered a stained glass ceiling but she will experience the same challenges as other female leaders.
Read the article in the Financial Times here.
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]]>George Lapshynov appears on Beyond Belief discussing moral and theological tensions surrounding immigration. 23/09/2025
Giles Fraser delves into the moral and theological tensions surrounding immigration, asking whether Christian faith leads to exclusion or radical inclusion.
British politician and prominent catholic Ann Widdecombe opens with a candid reflection on the limits of national capacity and the need for fair rules, citing scripture to support her belief in prioritizing care for one’s family and community. The discussion broadens with insights from Journalist & Historian Tim Stanley, human rights advocate Yasmin Halima, and Theos researcher George Lapshynov, who presents data showing non–practicing Christians are more hostile toward immigration than the general public. The panel explores the biblical imperative to welcome the stranger, the concept of “ordered love” from Saint Augustine, and the practical challenges of balancing compassion with security. Author and activist Onjali Raúf adds a deeply personal lens, highlighting the human cost of displacement and the rhetoric that dehumanizes refugees.
George draws from our Religion Counts and From Strangers to Neighbours research.
Listen to the episode on BBC Sounds here.
]]>Our open letter safeguarding Theology and RE in Higher Education was quoted in The Times. 20/09/2025
Phoebe Davies quotes our open letter in Credo column for the Times saying,
“It’s clear that theology and religious studies are sadly dying subjects. Chine McDonald from the Christian think tank, Theos, recently wrote that there will soon only be “21 higher education institutions in England and Wales that offer an undergraduate degree in theology and religious studies”. That’s down from 55 universities in 2016.”
You can read the full article here.
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Chine McDonald signs open letter condemning the misuse of Christian symbols at the recent ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally. 20/09/2025
“Jesus calls us to love both our neighbours and our enemies and to welcome the stranger. Any co–opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable”
Chine McDonald signs open letter condemning the misuse of Christian symbols at last week’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally organised by Tommy Robinson. The letter is signed by a number of Christian leaders across multiple traditions.
You can read the letter in full in the Mirror here.
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Blog, ‘We need to talk about race and assisted dying’, by Chine McDonald was referenced in Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill debate in the House of Lords. 19/09/2025
Baroness Berridge (Con) quoted an extract from blog ‘We need to talk about race and assisted dying’ by Chine McDonald saying:
My Lords, sadness and sympathy are palpable in our inboxes and in this Chamber. Your Lordships’ House is a sobering scene. I begin with what is missing from the Bill—the letter “S”, the plural. As the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, has outlined, there is no mention of family or relatives. Its premise is the western Enlightenment view of the self and individual autonomy, which is alien to parts of the UK, let alone to some of our ethnic minority communities. On the latter, I can put it no better than an article by Chine McDonald, director of Theos, in a post on 26 November last year:
“Many people will be familiar with the southern African term ‘Ubuntu’, which means ‘I am because you are’. In my own community—the Igbo ethnic group of south–eastern Nigeria—there is the concept of the Umunna: the fraternity, the clan or the community … there is a strong sense of existing not as an individual, but knitted into a family … The idea that someone who is facing death might not want to be a burden … is anathema to West African tradition. You can’t be a burden because you are not a separate entity. You’re part of a whole”.
Find the transcript from the rest of the debate here.
]]>Chine McDonald writes for the Financial Times on our collective fascination with the apocalypse. 15/08/2025
The apocalypse is in vogue because our fascination with catastrophe is lucrative writes Chine McDonald for the Financial Times.
Read it here.
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]]>Theos report ‘AI and the Afterlife’ was quoted in The Guardian. 10/08/2025
Harriet Sherwood references Theos report AI and the Afterlife in Sunday Read for the Guardian.
There is also a risk of creating a dependency in the living person, said Nathan Mladin, the author of AI and the Afterlife, a Theos report published last year. “Digital necromancy is a deceptive experience. You think you’re talking to a person when you’re actually talking to a machine. Bereaved people can become dependent on a bot, rather than accepting and healing.”
You can read the full article here.
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]]>Nick Spencer discusses the centenary of the Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme. 20/07/2025
One hundred years ago, the trial of John T Scopes began, where a US high school teacher was charged by the state of Tennessee for teaching the theories of evolution. Nick Spencer joined the commemorative events, and, speaking from Dayton Tennessee, he told Edward Stourton why the trial attracted so much attention.
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