TSCP 319 Spiritual But Not Religious with Michael Horton

David Capes interviews Dr. Michael Horton about his upcoming lecture, “Apologetics to the Spiritual but Not Religious,” and Horton’s decades of research into the topic. Horton argues that many people who identify as spiritual but not religious—or even atheist—hold spiritual or pantheistic beliefs and rely on personal, internal authority rather than external religious traditions. He traces these ideas from the Axial Age through Plato and Gnosticism to contemporary Silicon Valley, contrasting their emphasis on transcending the body with Christianity’s affirmation of creation, incarnation, and bodily resurrection. For engaging people with these views, Horton recommends listening for their underlying assumptions and grounding the conversation in historical claims, especially the resurrection of Jesus, rather than relying only on feelings or personal experience.