For the better part of a decade, the story of American religion has been told as a story of subtraction. Affiliation is down. Attendance is down. In 2024, eight in ten Americans said religion was losing influence in American life, and serious scholarship has documented the retreat of traditional religious authority. That perception has since softened—by 2026 the proportion seeing religion’s influence as diminished has fallen to six in ten—but the subtraction story persists as a frame through which American religion is read.

Over the past several decades, religion has moved from the center of American public life toward the margins. Most Americans now say religion is losing influence, and participation has declined across much of the developed world. At the same time, many Americans have shifted sources of identity and moral meaning away from religious commitments toward politics, popular culture, science, or some combination of the three. As this shift continues, it invites closer examination of how changes in religious involvement relate to individual well-being— including mental and physical health— as well as to family relationships and broader social life.

As we begin the second quarter of the 21st century, what do the best medical and social science studies tell us about connections between religion and health? The Religion and Human Flourishing series, a three-part research series by Wheatley Institute, answers this question by synthesizing the findings from Koenig, VanderWeele, and Peteet’s Handbook of Religion and Health (3rd ed., 2024)— a collection of hundreds of rigorous and high-quality studies that make up the most comprehensive and methodologically discerning review on religion and health to date. Part one of Religion and Human Flourishing focuses on religion and mental health, while part three focuses on religion and social health.

What does it mean to flourish? And how can societies help people achieve it?

“When a contentious issue arises, one filled with major conflicts, we ought to see this as an opportunity to listen and to learn, both about the issues at hand and about those who differ from us.”

In his viral cover story for The Atlantic, “Sucker: My Year as a Degenerate Gambler,” McKay Coppins embedded himself inside America’s sports-betting boom—and learned just how dangerous the industry can be.

Mariya Manzhos from Deseret News reviews a series of events hosted by Wheatley Institute in Washington D.C. that asks if— and how— civic compromise is possible.

Douglass compared government and the Constitution to "a ship and a compass": the latter could point correctly while the former steered wrongly. Decades of pro-slavery legislation might represent not the fulfillment of the Constitution but its betrayal.

Amy Ortiz, reporter at Deseret News, explores journalist McKay Coppin's recent lecture on sports gambling and addiction at Wheatley Institute.