If 2024 has been anything to go by, rumours of the death of religion in public life have been greatly exaggerated. Here, our director Chine McDonald, looks back at a year in the life of Theos, and highlights some of the places in which religion showed up in popular culture this year. 19/12/2024

January 

We kicked off the year knowing 2024 was going to be a heavily political one, with more than 70 elections due to take place around the world, encompassing 44% of the global population. From India to Indonesia to the US, and of course the UK, we asked whether Religion Counts. Building on our on–going work looking at understanding of and attitudes to death – assisted and otherwise – in the UK,  we also released some data we had commissioned on approaches to assisted dying.

What we were watching: Traitors UK. The popular game of trust and deception returned to the BBC and included a range of colourful characters, including a secret mother and son, and clairvoyant who didn’t see her departure coming.  

February

Our work on the themes of death and dying continued in 2024, alongside an acceleration of discussions about the ethics of artificial intelligence, which took on a new urgency this year. In this video AI and the Afterlife: From Digital Mourning to Mind Uploading, senior researcher Dr Nathan Mladin discussed the potential of AI to affect the grieving process. A prominent voice in campaigning for more public conversations about death, actor Greg Wise was one of the guests on the ninth series of our podcast The Sacred, as well as guests including Clementine Morrigan.  

What we were watching: The Color Purple. The new musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s harrowing yet life–giving Pulitzer Prize–winning 1982 novel took us on a rollercoaster of emotions: from fear through heartbreak, doubt, joy and unshakeable faith. We saw the heroine Celie and a host of larger than life characters experience the tragedy and horror of existing as black people amid the racism and violence of the south of the US in the first half of the 20th century. The film’s closing song, taken from the title The Color Purple is a rousing meditation on life, love and God: “God is inside me and everyone else… That was or ever will be.”  

March 

Continuing the theme of exploring the future, technology and personhood, March saw the release of Dr Hannah Waite and our senior fellow Dr Nick Spencer’s book Playing God: Science, Religion & the Future of Humanity. The book is a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human in light of eight burning questions raised by science – including AI, aliens, gene editing, the science of immortality, animal personhood, the treatment of mental health, mass vaccination and unborn children. While many companies were getting ready for the end of the financial year, we launched the first part of our research series Work Shift: How Love Could Change Work which charted some of the deep changes in the labour market. Changes include the rise in insecure work, increasing numbers working from home, gender shifts in the labour market, and changes underway in the world of social care.  

What we were listening to: Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé. The star converted a whole generation of young people to country music, with the release of her single Texas Hold’em. Like much of Beyoncé’s music, religious themes ran through it, with songs on the album featuring baptisms, requiems, confessions and prayer.  

April 

In April, we officially launched our Work Shift series with a panel event at St Katharine Cree exploring whether the concept of love could change how we understand social care. It centred around one of the reports from the series by our senior researcher Hannah Rich, entitled Love’s Labours: Good work, care work and a mutual economy. The launch event included our photo exhibition in collaboration with photographer Ruth Samuels, entitled You Cannot Pour from an Empty Cup, which celebrated care workers. Six months out from the US election, we also hosted Michael Wear, former faith adviser to President Obama and CEO of the Center for Christianity & Public Life in Washington DC. The event, The Spirit of Our Politics, was held in Westminster, and featured Michael in conversation with Marvin Rees, former mayor of Bristol.  

What we were watching: Baby Reindeer. The Netflix drama about stalking and obsession became an instant hit, but raised important questions about the ethics of blurring truth and reality in entertainment. 

May

In May, we were on the road with Trussell, delivering the keynote at four of their national roadshows on the theme of bridging the divide, and depolarisation. The talks drew on More In Common’s segmentation of the UK population, and our previous Theos reports, including Beyond Left and Right: Finding Consensus on Economic Inequality. Hannah Rich also took part in a panel at HowTheLightGetsInFestival entitled ‘Nightmare in Suburbia’, in which she spoke of the benefits of community living and non–atomised households. Some of the team also took part in an event at hosted by Wesley House and the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, which explored Colin Bloom’s review of the then government’s interaction with faith communities, 12 months on from its publication. 

What we were watching: Better off Dead? The impactful BBC documentary by actor and disability rights activist Liz Carr explored assisted dying legislation and its repercussions in Canada, making a strong case for why such laws that were being considered in the UK would be detrimental to disabled people, whose lives would be deemed ‘not worth living’.  

June  

Ahead of the UK election, our Religion Counts analysis explored a range of issues, including what religious people think of national identity and Scottish Independence, and what they think of key issues facing the UK, including: the economy, the NHS, and immigration. Our forensic analysis of the British Election Study’s survey data found that Christians are more likely to vote, Muslims are the least likely to vote. This month also saw us launch new series of our two podcasts. Reading Our Times explored the rise of mental health issues among young people, with columnist Abigail Shrier; how much a life is worth, with journalist Jenny Kleeman; and how to know a person, with US journalist and author David Brooks. Over at the Sacred, we saw discussions on what it means to be ‘fully alive’, with guests including US author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin, artist and writer Luke Turner, and psychologist Dacher Keltner.  

What we were listening to: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The highest–grossing tour of all time landed in the UK capturing our attention with celebrity appearances and minor earthquakes. There was an undeniable sense that these concerts drew people together from all over the globe adorned in sparkles, exchanging friendship bracelets, and united in song.

July   

July saw the UK electorate vote for a change of government. As 14 years of Conservative rule was ended with a Labour victory, our head of political engagement Paul Bickley, reflected on a turbulent decade in politics and asked whether the future in politics was looking more stable. Across the pond, the US election took on twists and turns, with Donald Trump surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and President Joe Biden pulling out of the race. As the Republican National Convention got underway, Nick Spencer commented on whether US politics had tipped over into outright religion: “The flags. The chanting. The weeping. The ecstatic joy. The confidence in their destiny. And the bandaged ears. Where is Émile Durkheim when you need him?” 

What we were watching: The Olympics opening ceremony. There was much controversy about what some saw as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. Marianne Rozario, senior researcher at Theos, weighed in on the controversy, while Hannah Rich unpacked tensions between athletes’ visible signs of faith and France’s secular state, and Nick Spencer explored how Olympians had invoked God in their performances.  

August 

In August, we saw the worst case of civil unrest in the UK – in England in particular – for more than a decade. Sparked by the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Southport, rioters took to the streets across the country. Following the riots, we at Theos joined other organisations, including Demos, the Jo Cox Foundation, and Oxfam GB, in an open letter in the Guardian calling for a national effort to rebuild communities after the riots. In the aftermath, senior researcher Hannah Rich set off to investigate the Church’s responses in their local communities following the riots.  

What we were listening to: Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In recent years, the Australian singer–songwriter has spoken publicly about loss, faith and God. This widely–acclaimed album is a joyous celebration of life, which touches on Cave’s spiritual journey. As Rolling Stone described it, Cave ‘plays preacher, congregation, and god over the course of a suite of songs that are in equal measure elegiac and ecstatic’. You can listen to his episode of The Sacred here.  

September 

In September, we partnered for the second year in a row with HowTheLightGetsIn Festival in London, hosting two events: the first – a live recording of our Reading Our Times podcast exploring the future of books and reading, and hosted by Nick Spencer. The second ‘Motherhood vs the Machine‘ – Chine McDonald in conversation with Mary Harrington and Charlotte Faircloth on shifting perceptions of motherhood. This month also saw the launch of our report More: The Problem with Productivity. In a world where productivity is, economically speaking, extremely important, the report asked: what are we trying to produce more of, and why?  

What we were watching: Nobody Wants This (Netflix).This romcom series about the unlikely romance between an agnostic sex podcaster and a “hot rabbi” explored family ties, heritage, faith and belief, and reminded women everywhere of their teenage crush on Adam Brody, who plays the rabbi. It featured conversion, belief and Jewish culture as key plot lines, although it drew criticism from some for its stereotypes of Jewish women.  

October 

In October, we officially launched our film In Sync with the Sun, with a screening and discussion event at the BFI. The film, created by our creative content designer Emily Downe, accompanied our productivity report and explored the rhythms of waking and resting embedded in the natural world. In anticipation of the vote in parliament on assisted dying, we launched a new and revised version of our 2013 report The Meaning of Dignity, alongside a wider stream of work unpacking the assisted suicide debate.  

What we were watching: Undercover: Exposing the Far Right. This Channel 4 documentary goes behind the scenes of the Far Right movement in the UK and Europe, with an undercover investigation led by UK think tank Hope Not Hate. A shocking exposé, but what was more shocking was seeing the increasing co–opting of Christian symbolism and religious language among these extreme groups.  

November 

This month saw the unprecedented resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury following the publishing of the Makin Review into abuse carried out by John Smyth, followed by much discussion about safeguarding in the Church of England, and its future. Archbishop Justin Welby had been due to deliver our annual lecture on the theme of housing this month, but instead we held a panel conversation exploring the question: Does the future have a church? The panel comprised Daisy Scalchi, head of religion & ethics (TV) at the BBC, authors Mary Harrington and Justin Brierley, Madeleine Davies from the Church Times, and Bishop Mike Royal, general secretary of Churches Together in England.  

What we were watching: Aside from the US election, which saw Donald Trump elected president of the United States (again), we were watching… Paddington in Peru. This third big screen saw Michael Bond’s bear travel to his country of origin, touching on themes of migration, belonging, and Christianity (thanks to a singing nun played by Olivia Colman).  

December  

Following the riots over the summer, Hannah Rich’s research exploring churches’ responses to the unrest was published. The report Disunited Kingdom: Local churches and the riots of summer 2024 showed how churches in places where riots occurred were well–placed to respond because they could leverage their strong community links, for example, as well as hold institutional relationships with local police. The report was also cited twice during debates in the House of Lords. 

What we were watching: Glicked. Yes, Wicked and Gladiator II. This year’s Barbenheimer (Barbie and Oppenheimer) in which two blockbuster films are released into the world at the same time, we saw the stage musical origin story of the witches of the Wizard of Oz take to the big screen, spawning endless memes, reels and fan videos. Meanwhile, the second epic Ridley Scott film takes us back to Rome. This time, the star line–up includes Denzel Washington, who opened up about his Christian faith during the press tour, including the time he saw the face of God in the sky. Not the usual topic of discussion for Radio 1Xtra.  

Theos media highlights of 2024 

Places our team appeared… 

• Chine McDonald, director, in a debate about the role of faith in politics, on BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live  

• Dr Nathan Mladin, senior researcher, discussing grief technology on BBC Radio 4 Sunday 

• Elizabeth Oldfield, host of The Sacred, discussing protest on BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking 

• Hannah Rich, senior researcher, discussed our Love’s Labours report on BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme 

• Chine McDonald discussing cultural Christianity on BBC Radio 4 Sunday 

• Dr Madeleine Pennington, head of research, discussing approaches to death and dying on BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze 

• Dr Nick Spencer discussing the role of religion, ethics and public life on BBC Radio Scotland 

• Chine McDonald in the Financial Times on why democratic societies are having trust issues, and on the task for the next Archbishop of Canterbury, following the resignation of Justin Welby  

• Nick Spencer writing for Hyphen Online about the assisted dying debate 

• Chine McDonald debating Mark Mardell about religious voices in the assisted dying debate on BBC Radio 4 Sunday, following a letter in the Times ahead of the vote 

Places Theos was featured in…  

• This Telegraph article about the rise of Catholic TikTok  

• This episode of BBC Radio 4 Sunday  where Professor John Curtice discussed our Religion Counts report 

• This Financial Times article on work ethic in the workplace 

• This New Statesman article on the rise of ‘cultural Christianity’ 

• This Guardian letter about rebuilding communities following the riots 

• This article in the Times about the ‘rise’ in the number of atheists  

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