This fall I spent a memorable Friday afternoon with friends touring the National Gallery of Denmark, not far from the King’s Garden in central Copenhagen. The guide excitedly told us about a new exhibit on Surrealism, which she said has become popular again. No wonder. Surrealism emerged in Europe as a response to the First World War. I can see why it’s popular again, as the post-war consensus of the Second World War has finally crumbled with Russia’s invasion and ongoing war with Ukraine.

I don’t consider myself an expert in Surrealism, so I read the curator’s explanations of André Breton and his Second Surrealist Manifesto from 1929. Here’s one of those summaries:

Inspired by Freud’s psychoanalysis, the [Surrealists] see drives as a fundamental energy that moves human beings—not only towards life and creation but also towards dissolution and chaos. This is evident in their depictions of war, disintegrating bodies, and challenges to authority figures . . . . These artists allow themselves to be guided by their drives, which can lead to both the construction of new visions and the dismantling of existing norms.

You see and even feel in the Surrealists’ work the destruction suffered by a generation whose world was destroyed by war. You can also see that they didn’t intend to put the world back together the way they inherited it. There was no going back to July 1914. Guided by Freud, they would be driven to reconstruct life however they pleased.

Yes, you can see why Surrealism is popular again. We’re not going back to the world before the COVID global pandemic. Or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Or the terrorist attacks on Israel from Gaza. We’re navigating the future without a compass, only our drives.

This is modern Western secularism, as I describe in a new commentary for Gospelbound. Considering how Protestantism has become a victim of its own success, I trace the historical progression of Christianity from dominant to assumed to dismissed. We’ve internalized Christianity, but we won’t acknowledge it. We’ve publicized Christianity, but we won’t credit it. We’ve abandoned Christianity, but we don’t know how to replace it.

Yet today we see cracks in the edifice of secularism. Reality remains inconvenient to those who deny God. The two genders are different. Not every metaphysic produces the same results, or even desirable results. Neighbors often desire to defeat or conquer their neighbors. We need a way to tolerate differences but maintain social cohesion. We need a shared basis for justice while preserving freedoms of conscience, speech, and assembly. We need help restraining the drives that destroy ourselves and others. There must be a purpose for progress beyond the cycles of fashion and our feeling of superiority over the past.

I see a future for the church in the most secular cities of the West. I heard about it from the leaders of TGC Norden during my Copenhagen visit. Something is changing. I see three tension points that will demand widespread social action. And Surrealism won’t have any answers. The West will need Christianity again.

After you watch or listen to what I’ve identified as three threats to secularism, I’d love to know what you’re seeing. You’ll probably also pick up in my two factors that produce secularism a strong warning against attempts to impose Christian nationalism.