Modern America, like Rome at the time of Christ, is in a period of rising secularism and religious chaos. Christianity has lost the power to shape our culture, and no rival religion or philosophy seems able to take its place. I argue that this period of tension will end as the Roman one did--with the advent of a new religion that will synthesize the best features of our current religions into a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Waiting for the Unknown God
The Athenian citizens who gathered on Mars Hill to listen to Paul talk about "the unknown God" had little reason to be optimistic about the future of religion. Or rather, they had little reason to be optimistic about the future of any of the religions they knew about. Neither do we. But does that mean that there will never again be a dominant religion?

Why None of the Contenders can become Champion
Almost all of the religions currently contending for dominance in America can be placed in one of the following four categories: historical monotheism, Scientism, Eastern religions, and Earth-centered religions. None of them is in a position to pick up the baton that Christianity has dropped.

Predecessors of the Next Religion
At any given point in history there is a central metaphor, a field of thought which provides the images and vocabulary for a culture's religious expression. This field of thought--be it hunting, agriculture, politics, or physics--may have no explicit religious content of its own, but the images and concepts that it provides have a profound effect on the religion of its time.

In the history leading up to modern Western culture, I identify six epochs with six central metaphors: hunter-gatherer animism, agricultural Earth worship, city-state polytheism, imperial monotheism, medieval Catholicism, and finally the modern era's design monotheism, in which the Universe is a machine, and God is the Great Designer.

The Breakdown of the Great Design
The last two centuries have been difficult ones for proponents of the Great Design. In the prior centuries scientists had found that the harder they looked at phenomena, the simpler their descriptions became. The more they thought about a subject, the more they realized that its apparently complex manifestations were just the logical consequences of a few simple laws. But in the 19th and 20th centuries, the harder scientists looked, the more they saw that the apparent simplicity was only an approximation. Rather than unifying, things began to splinter.

Ecology as the Next Central Metaphor
As the old, Newtonian physics becomes more and more inappropriate as a central metaphor, many observers are looking to the "new" physics to take its place. They're looking in the wrong place.

Implications of the Change in Metaphor
Shifting our central metaphor from physics to ecology will have effects far beyond the scope of this essay. Most importantly from a religious point of view, it will facilitate three changes that will have great impact in their own right:

• Immediate experience will take on a new importance
• Polytheism will return under the umbrella of pantheism
• We will learn to value diversity rather than merely tolerate it.

Emergence of the Next Religion
To my knowledge there is no religious group that fits the description I have given. Nonetheless, I believe that the religion I have described is viable today in America, and once introduced could rise to dominance within fifty years. This is extraordinary speed for a religious revolution, but it is possible because the triumph of the next religion will not require conversions of Pentecostal magnitude.

Conclusion
The next religion will re-assemble the desirable pieces of our current religions just as Christianity re-assembled pieces from the religions of Roman times. It will take the social structure of Christianity, Scientism's respect for facts and logic, Eastern religion's focus on experience, and the ecological awareness of the earth-centered religions. It will accept the religious experiences of all religions, value their practices, study their myths, and meditate on their symbols. It will be a welcoming place for people of all beliefs. It will help them learn to live lives of value, and to find what is waiting to be found in the experience of the divine.