Paul Bickley comments on the new survey by the Pew Research Center in Religion News.

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“Paul Bickley, head of the political program at Theos, a London think tank that studies the role of religion, said a British census question on religion gives an idea of a group dubbed “census Christians” without further detail about beliefs.

The 2001 census showed a surprisingly large 72 percent of self–identified Christians, but this dropped to 59 percent in the 2011 census.

Bickley agreed in general with the Pew findings but stressed the longer–term perspective that other research in Britain has indicated.

“It’s clear that religious identity and practice are both declining,” he said. “Also, the nones aren’t blanks with no spiritual beliefs at all — a lot is retained, rethought or re–understood. There’s complexity beneath any figures like these.””

Read the full article here.