The Religiously Unaffiliated Did Not Reject God — They Rejected Western Christianity

This is part 2 of 3 talks by Dr. Nathan Jacobs about the "nones", the religiously unaffiliated, a group that has grown dramatically over the past two decades. In this talk, Nathan Jacobs argues that many who leave are not rejecting God, per se, but a particular vision of God shaped by Western theological developments. Exploring themes like grace, freedom, divine goodness, fatalism, and anthropology, he contrasts key Western trajectories with the vision of the Eastern Church Fathers. The result is a compelling case that Orthodoxy does not suppress the moral and spiritual intuitions of today’s seekers — it fulfills them. Watch part 1: The Modern Religious Debate Lost Its Audience: https://youtu.be/vun_XtxDt5E Contribute to the East West Lecture Series fundraiser: http://theeastwestseries.com/ Do you want to watch the Becoming Truly Human documentary? Watch it along with other exclusive content on Jacobs Premium. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Coming up next 01:28 - East West series 02:36 - Introduction 05:18 - What the nones believe 10:39 - Rejecting Western Christianity 14:12 - Augustine 18:40 - The nature/Grace divide 25:42 - Protestantism & predestination 31:48 - God's will 39:36 - Competing goods 46:17 - Our world is spiritual 59:02 - Return to talk 59:51 - Man as microcosm 01:01:51 - Was man made mortal or immortal? 01:06:11 - Energies 01:15:02 - What happens after death 01:18:06 - The remedy for divine hiddenness 01:24:34 - Q&A: On trusting your intuitions about God 01:29:21 - Q: Anxiety of the participants 01:30:58 - Q: What about Jesus? 01:33:11 - Q: Discussions about the Trinity 01:36:07 - Q: Using the halo in the documentary 01:40:06 - Q: Do nones go to other religions? ====================================== All the links: The Theological Letters Substack: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcast X: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobs Academia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobs Listen and please review the podcast elsewhere: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QS Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast