The study, conducted by Ipsos/MORI found that fewer than three in ten (28%) of people who called themselves Christian in the 2011 Census say they are so 'because they believe in the teachings of Christianity', and only half have attended a church service (outside special occasions) in the previous twelve months.
In other words, there are a lot of nominal Christians in Britain.
Who would have thought it?
The big question is, are these real Christians?
The Dawkins answer is a clear 'No' - one that will be echoed by a great number of Christians. Unless you believe that [fill in your own criteria here] you have no right to call yourself a Christian.
The problem is, the issue of who is 'real' and who is not is not as simple as that.
When LICC conducted its
Beyond Belief? research in 2003, we spoke to many people who were not practising the Christian faith; half of these had ticked the 'Christian' box in the 2001 Census and half had not - and the difference between them was clearly apparent. The Census Christians were vague and hesitant about their beliefs but had a genuine warmth and sympathy towards Christianity that was palpably lacking in the other group, who were hostile often to the point of venomous.
In other words, nominalism mattered.
This is clearly not to say it doesn't matter what you believe or practise. It does. Rather, it is to say that it is not for us to pass judgment, still less to ignore what people say about themselves.
Given the nature of this story, it is pleasingly ironic that Jesus spent much of his ministry in a running battle with the Pharisees over the question of who was and wasn't a true Israelite. The Pharisees policed the nation's theological boundary vigorously, damning those whose practice of the law was not quite as punctilious as their own. Jesus incensed them by redrawing those boundaries to include those who had been left out in the cold and cast out those who were smugly pious and self-righteous.
The lesson is instructive for all of us today, whether religious or atheist, who draw lines too vigorously and imagine we can make windows into others' souls.
Nick Spencer
Research Director of Theos
