top of page
Search

What is The Future of Religion?

  • Writer: Rick Bonetti
    Rick Bonetti
  • 2 days ago
  • 3 min read
"You've read the books. Asked the questions. Maybe deconstructed, maybe just drifted. The faith you inherited doesn't fit anymore—but you're not ready to throw it all away... You haven't lost your faith. You've outgrown its container. You're not alone. And, you're not broken."

"What if the restlessness you feel isn't a loss of faith but the growing pains of faith evolving? What if religion itself is going through exactly what you're going through—and there's a map for what comes next??


Dr. Ilia Delio (Franciscan sister, Villanova theologian, author of The Not-Yet God) and Dr. Tripp Fuller (founder of Homebrewed Christianity, process theologian, host of 1,500+ conversations with leading scholars) have spent decades on this question. Now they're joining forces to trace religion's evolutionary arc—and to invite you into what's emerging.

Live Q&A sessions begin in May. Sign up now to join the conversation in real time—or watch the replays at your own pace. Register here.


"Tripp and Ilia take turns guiding you through religion's evolutionary arc. Tripp traces the embodied, pre-Axial roots and diagnoses the current crisis through Whitehead's process lens. Ilia illuminates the Axial turn and casts the vision for Second Axial religion through Teilhard's evolutionary mysticism. Together, they model the integration the course describes."


"This course is for you if...

  • You're tired of choosing between intellectual honesty and spiritual depth

  • You've "deconstructed" but don't want to throw out everything

  • Church feels like a foreign country, but "spiritual but not religious" doesn't quite fit either

  • You sense that something new is trying to be born—and you want language for it

  • You've heard of Teilhard de Chardin or Alfred North Whitehead, and want to actually understand them

  • You're a pastor, teacher, or spiritual director trying to help others navigate this terrain

  • You want to feel less alone in asking these questions."


WEEK ONE - Before Belief: The Embodied Roots of Religion

Lecture by Dr. Tripp Fuller

Livestream Q&A: Monday, June 1st — 8 a.m. PST

What was religion before it became about believing the right things?

  • A framework for understanding why "belief" feels so central to religion today—and why it wasn't always

  • Language for the parts of your spirituality that don't fit in doctrinal boxes

  • Permission to trust your body, your community, and the earth as sources of the sacred

  • Whitehead's four-stage model: ritual → emotion → belief → rationalization


WEEK TWO - The Axial Turn: When Religion Became About Belief

Lecture by Dr. Ilia Delio

Livestream Q&A: Monday, June 8th — 10 a.m. PST

What was gained—and lost—when religion centered on belief, individual salvation, and transcendence?

  • Understanding of the "Axial Age" (800–200 BCE) and why it still shapes everything about how we do religion

  • Clarity on why your tradition emphasizes doctrine, individual salvation, and transcendence

  • A framework for what the First Axial turn gave us—and what it cost us (earth, body, collective, feminine)

  • How Christianity got tied to an ancient cosmology—and why that's now a problem


WEEK THREE - The Crisis: Why the Old Maps Don't Work

Lecture by Dr. Tripp Fuller

Livestream Q&A: Monday, June 22nd — 10 a.m. PST

Why are our inherited religious forms struggling—and what does this have to do with evolution?

  • A diagnosis that doesn't blame you (or "the culture") for why faith feels harder now

  • Understanding of why belief-centered religion is losing traction—especially among people who think deeply

  • Clarity on why "going back" isn't an option, even if it's tempting

  • Language for the spiritual hunger that technology and AI are now trying to fill


WEEK FOUR - Second Axial Religion: Toward an Evolutionary Faith

Lecture by Dr. Ilia Delio

Livestream Q&A: Monday, June 29th — 10 a.m. PST

What would religion look like if it integrated evolution, recovered its embodied roots, and transcended belief-bounded expressions?

  • A vision for faith that doesn't require you to leave your brain at the door

  • Teilhard's shift from God "above" to God "ahead"—and what that changes about everything

  • Understanding of "Second Axial consciousness": collective and individual, transcendent and immanent

  • Hope that something real is emerging—not just a critique of what's dying

bottom of page