Earlier this month, Tara Isabella Burton published a fascinating—and very familiar—essay in the New York Times called “Christianity Gets Weird.” She described a small but lively movement of mainly young Christians who are rediscovering the ancient church. They’re doing things that may just seem a little strange. Here’s Burton:
More and more young Christians, disillusioned by the political binaries, economic uncertainties and spiritual emptiness that have come to define modern America, are finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith. As the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns throw the failures of the current social order into stark relief, old forms of religiosity offer a glimpse of the transcendent beyond the present.
She continues:
Weird Christianity is equal parts traditionalism and, well, punk: Christianity as transgressive alternative to contemporary secular capitalist culture. Like punk, Weird Christianity has its own, clearly defined aesthetic. Many Weird Christians across the denominational and political spectrum express fondness for older, more liturgically elaborate practices — like the Episcopal Rite I, a form of worship that draws on Elizabethan-era language, say, or the Latin Mass, or the wearing of veils to church.
In the piece she highlights “an Episcopalian seminarian who is using Google Hangouts to pray the Office of the Dead,” mentions “MechaBonald” (a “Weird Catholic online ecosystem”), and talks to Rod Dreher, the patron pundit of intentional, high-church counterculture.
As I read the piece, I immediately had two related thoughts. The first was about “cage-stage Calvinists” from my own religious tradition (or perhaps the “young, restless, and reformed”). The second was about Kierkegaard. “Weird Christianity” is hardly limited to the high church, and weird Christianity is often the beginning stage of meaningful reform. It often represents the revolt of Christianity against Christendom. But it’s not without its own profound perils.
David French is a columnist for the New York Times. He’s a former senior editor of The Dispatch. He’s the author most recently of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.
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