Religion in a ‘big power world’: ReligionLink’s 2026 predictions

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As 2026 begins, many of the religion stories that we were tracking last year remain unresolved.

Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to reverberate through religious communities worldwide. Debates over immigration, religious freedom, social media, climate change and the role of faith in democratic life show few signs of receding. In the United States, polarization remains a defining feature of public life even as, and perhaps even because, institutions confront long-term demographic change.

Yet the year ahead is likely to bring new flashpoints — and long-simmering trends to the surface. From global Christian realignment and faith-based responses to climate disasters, to artificial intelligence reshaping spiritual authority and religious actors playing visible roles in elections at home and abroad, religion will intersect with geopolitics, technology and culture in fresh ways over the next 12 months.

You will be there to cover it all with balance, accuracy and insight. And ReligionLink will be here to help you do so, especially as we celebrate our 25th anniversary.

As we do every year, this edition looks ahead to the religion stories we think are likely to shape coverage in 2026, offering context, reporting angles and expert perspectives to help journalists anticipate how faith trends will continue to enter the frame.

Here are our eight storylines to watch:

  • Render unto democracy what is democracy’s
  • Christianity at a crossroads
  • Faith on a fevered planet
  • The temple of the future is in beta
  • Trump’s kingdom come?
  • Spiritual leaders in a big power world
  • First responders of faith
  • Seeking meaning in an anxious age/age of anxiety

Render unto democracy what is democracy's

Religion is increasingly part of how democracy itself is being debated, practiced and stretched to its limits.

In New York, the opening months of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty — not to mention Donald Trump’s presidency — will draw attention to faith coalitions working on housing, labor, migration and public safety in one of the most religiously diverse cities in the world — a place where churches, mosques, synagogues and temples function as civic infrastructure as much as spiritual homes. In the United States, the 2026 midterm elections come quickly after the nation’s 250th anniversary and in the wake of President Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and threats to take over Greenland, sharpening arguments over civil religion, immigration, the future of international alliances, historical memory and the moral meaning of democracy itself.

Internationally, major votes, including Britain’s nationwide local elections, Brazil’s general election and Colombia’s presidential contest, India’s state races, elections in Israel and Nepal, as well as pivotal votes across Europe and Africa, will highlight how religious language and institutions shape voter mobilization, social cohesion and post-election legitimacy. Coverage may need to question whether religious actors help stabilize democratic norms or amplify polarization during moments of political strain. Journalists will track how faith groups act as civic institutions, analyze religious rhetoric in campaigns, follow post-election reconciliation efforts and resistance as well as examine how religious narratives shape trust, truth-telling and the future of democracy itself in a “big power world.”

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Christianity at a crossroads

The shifting center of global Christianity will continue to move from background trend to central storyline.

Major Protestant denominations in the U.S. and Europe are likely to continue announcing parish closures and repurposing alongside regional mergers and governance reforms as decades of membership decline force institutional consolidation. Global Catholic gatherings and/or synodal processes are expected to address these realities directly, including expanded roles for lay leadership and new approaches to ministry formation.

At the same time, rapidly growing churches in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia are expected to exert increasing influence over global Christian debates on theology, sexuality, Scripture and authority. Tensions between churches in the Global South and their European and North American counterparts may sharpen, with disputes testing long-standing denominational alliances and governance structures. Coverage in 2026 will increasingly frame these developments not as Christianity’s collapse, but as a global rebalancing, raising questions about whose voices carry authority, how power is shared and what forms of Christianity will shape the future of the faith. Reporters should follow institutional restructuring, track Global South leadership in doctrinal debates, examine friction points in global communions and report on how shifting demographics reshape authority, theology and politics. 

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  • Philip Jenkins

    Philip Jenkins is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University. He also is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and serves as co-director for the institute’s Initiative on Historical Studies of Religion. He is the author of Climate, Catastrophe and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval and The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, which includes extensive discussion of the global impact of Pentecostalism.

  • Todd M. Johnson

    Todd M. Johnson is co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. The rise of Pentecostalism has been a major focus of the program. He is also an expert on international religious demography; he is associate editor of the World Christian Database and is co-editor of the World Religion Database.

  • Gina Zurlo

    Gina Zurlo is a senior researcher and lecturer in world Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. She is also editor of the World Christian Database and a visiting research scholar at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs.

Faith on a fevered planet

Climate change coverage will require a mix of humanitarian urgency and pragmatic realism.

As global temperatures continue to rise and emissions level off rather than decline, faith-based organizations are likely to remain among the most visible responders to extreme heat, flooding, storms and climate-driven displacement. This is particularly so in regions where state capacity is limited or politically constrained. Religious leaders are increasingly expected to acknowledge the narrowing window for meeting the 1.5°C target while continuing to frame climate action as a moral responsibility rooted in stewardship, care for creation and attentiveness to the most vulnerable communities.

Beyond public statements, churches, mosques, temples and faith-based nongovernmental organizations are likely to advance quieter efforts to reduce emissions, invest in adaptation and strengthen local resilience. Coverage in 2026 should track the uneven progress of clean-energy transitions, disputes over critical minerals and the rising economic toll of extreme weather, situating climate change as a spiritual, humanitarian and geopolitical challenge rather than a purely environmental one.

Journalists following faith-based disaster response will also need to track religious institutions’ decarbonization efforts and report on how climate impacts reshape theology, aid and global power dynamics.

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  • Amanda J. Baugh

    Amanda J. Baugh is a professor and the associate chair of religious studies at California State University, Northridge, where she specializes in the study of climate change, the environment and American religion, with attention to questions of race, ethnicity and class. She is the author of God and the Green Divide: Religious Environmentalism in Black and White.

     

  • Dayenu

    Dayenu is a multigenerational Jewish movement that aims to confront the climate crisis with spiritual audacity and bold political action.

  • Faith for the Climate

    The Faith for the Climate network exists to encourage, inspire and equip faith communities in their work on the crisis of climate change. It is based in the United Kingdom and involves laypeople and activists, bishops, priests, rabbis, imams, CEOs and professionals working in faith-based nongovernmental organizations.

  • GreenFaith

    GreenFaith is an interfaith coalition that works with houses of worship, religious schools and people of all faiths to help them become better environmental stewards. The Rev. Fletcher Harper is executive director.

  • Operation Noah

    Operation Noah is a Christian charity working with churches and organizations to inspire action on the climate crisis, particularly related to fossil fuel divestment. The press contact is Cameron Conant.

  • Gopal Patel

    Gopal Patel is leading faith-based environmental activist who believes in the power of engaged religion and spirituality to address the world’s biggest climate-related challenges. He was the founder of a movement called Bhumi Global, which sought to activate Hindu youth in support of Planet Earth.

  • Lisa Schipper

    Lisa Schipper is an environmental social science research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on what causes people to be vulnerable to climate change in developing countries, and the barriers and enablers for people to adapt to the changes in climate.

The temple of the future is in beta

It’s the understatement of the century to say that the intersection of religion and technology is more than novelty.

Religious communities and tech industry leaders are increasingly experimenting with AI-powered chatbots, digital avatars and automated Scripture tools designed to answer questions, offer prayers or provide spiritual guidance — sometimes without direct clergy oversight. As reporting has already shown, developers are racing to create increasingly lifelike religious artificial-intelligence figures, raising questions about authority, authenticity and whether spiritual mediation can (or should) be delegated to code. At the same time, faith leaders are having to wrestle with how technology impacts community and “organized” religion.

As with most controversies, religious institutions and authorities are likely to respond unevenly. Some denominations and faith leaders will issue formal guidance on the use of AI in preaching, religious guidance, pastoral care, confession, prayer and religious education, while others will experiment more freely. Alongside this, early Web3 initiatives, such as blockchain-based donations, the quasi-divine power of quantum computing, decentralized governance models and tokenized pilgrimage or community projects, might begin to test forms of stewardship and accountability.

Coverage will need to examine whether these technologies deepen access and engagement or risk commodifying sacred practices. Follow official faith statements on AI, investigate real-world use of religious chatbots, track viral controversies and examine how Web3 tools reshape authority, finance and community governance in religious life.

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  • Philip Butler

    Philip Butler is a professor at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Butler’s work focuses on the intersections of neuroscience, technology, spirituality and Blackness. He engages in critical and constructive analysis on Black posthumanism, artificial intelligence and pluriversal future realities.

  • Pauline Hope Cheong

    Pauline Hope Cheong is a professor at Arizona State University. Her research interests are in the complex interactions between communication technologies and different cultural communities around the world — including the socio-cultural implications of artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.

  • Anushka Jain

    Anushka Jain is a lawyer and policy researcher interested in disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition and machine learning. She is a research associate at the Digital Futures Lab, where her work focuses on the proliferation of surveillance technology and its human rights impacts.

Trump's kingdom come?

Presidents entering second terms often turn to foreign policy to define their legacy, and Trump’s return to the White House has followed that pattern decisively.

In his first year back in office, Trump moved aggressively on the global stage, slashing foreign aid, raising tariffs, intervening diplomatically and militarily in conflicts from Gaza and Ukraine to Iran and Nagorno-Karabakh, airstrikes in Nigeria, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, threatening the acquisition of Greenland. At the start of 2026, his authorization of an operation in Caracas that removed Nicolás Maduro marked a clear escalation, committing the U.S. to sustained intervention in Latin America — and perhaps elsewhere. 

How religious constituencies respond remains an open and consequential question. Evangelical views on Israel, the Middle East and persecution in Nigeria are likely to remain largely consistent. At the same time, intensifying global religious-freedom disputes — over minorities, converts and dissenting clergy — will draw U.S. faith leaders deeper into foreign-policy advocacy. Less certain is whether those same communities will continue to support — or begin to question — direct U.S. military interventions abroad.

Religion reporters might focus coverage on how faith leaders shape, justify or resist U.S. foreign policy, highlighting how religion shapes foreign policy (rather than just reacting to it), moral frameworks such as just war and religious freedom and flashpoint moments that expose fractures.

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  • Council on Foreign Relations

    The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank and publisher dedicated to helping its members better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

  • Office of International Religious Freedom

    The Office of International Religious Freedom promotes universal respect for freedom of religion or belief for all as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy. It monitors religiously motivated abuses, harassment and discrimination worldwide, recommending, developing and implementing policies and programs to address these concerns. Contact Isaac Six, senior official in the office, or Mariah Mercer, deputy to the IRF ambassador.

  • Erin D. Singshinsuk

    Erin Singshinsuk serves as executive director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She is responsible for directing the day-to-day operations of the commission and managing its staff.

Spiritual leaders in a big power world

Global religious leadership will continue to command attention as faith figures operate on the geopolitical stage.

The early papacy of Pope Leo XIV, recently named 2025’s Newsmaker of the Year by members of the Religion News Association, is being closely watched as the Vatican moves from the momentum of the Jubilee year into implementation of synodal reforms; the Second World Children’s Day in Rome in September; continued diplomatic engagement on war, climate change and migration; as well as a demanding international travel schedule that underscores the church’s reach — Pope Leo has expressed interest in visiting Algeria (ties to St. Augustine), Portugal (Fátima), Mexico (Guadalupe), Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, with no specific dates yet announced. In the U.S., Catholic debates over immigration, nationalism and social teaching sharpen as Rome’s priorities intersect uneasily with domestic politics.

Elsewhere, uncertainty surrounding the Dalai Lama’s future — amid Chinese pressure over succession — means Tibetan Buddhism should feature in human-rights reporting. And meanwhile, influential Muslim, Pentecostal, Hindu, Orthodox and Sikh leaders increasingly shape moral discourse once dominated by Western Catholic and Protestant institutions, reframing religious leadership as a diverse force navigating global power, conflict and legitimacy in a multipolar world.

Journalists would be wise to track religious leaders as political actors as well as spiritual actors, following travel itineraries as well as their diplomacy and reception in various contexts, especially where faith priorities collide with nationalist movements, succession struggles and pressures on democracies worldwide.

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  • John L. Allen Jr.

    John L. Allen Jr. is editor of Crux, a website specializing in coverage of the Catholic Church. He previously was the longtime Rome correspondent for National Catholic Reporter. Allen is considered a top Vaticanologist and a leading English-language expert and commentator on the papacy.

  • Kaydor Aukatsang

    Kaydor Aukatsang is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and president of the Asia Freedom Institute. He previously served as head of the Office of Tibet in New York; special adviser to Lobsang Sangay, the elected leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile; and president of the Tibetan Association of Northern California.

  • Nalika Gajaweera

    Nalika Gajaweera is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in the intricate relationships between religion, race, gender, ethics and social justice, drawing on research conducted in Sri Lanka and the United States. She is assistant director of the Humanities Center at the University of California, Irvine.

  • Matthew J. Moore

    Matthew J. Moore is a political scientist at Cal Poly University in Pomona, California. He has published a series of works on Buddhism in political perspective, including Buddhism and Political Theory; “Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Transformative Politics,” New Political Science; and “Buddhism and International Law” in Comparative Political Theory in Time and Place.

  • Thomas Reese

    The Rev. Thomas J. Reese is a Jesuit priest and senior analyst for Religion News Service. He writes and comments widely on Catholic culture and politics. He is the author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. 

First responders of faith

Immigration and refugee care will continue to place religious institutions at the center of public debate as global displacement remains at historic highs.

In 2026, churches, synagogues, mosques and other faith-based charities will serve as prominent providers of shelter, legal aid, drug treatment and rehabilitation as well as resettlement support, even with massive cuts to federal aid and  increased scrutiny and pressure from governments in the U.S. and across Europe. 

In the U.S., renewed sanctuary practices, protest actions and legal advocacy have drawn increased scrutiny from federal and state authorities, setting up court challenges that test the boundaries between religious freedom, humanitarian obligation and immigration enforcement. Across Europe and parts of the Global South, faith groups face growing political pressure even as governments rely on them to manage humanitarian fallout.

Reporters will need to cover immigration through faith-based service networks, not just as an afterthought. At the same time, journalists will need to keep an eye on court cases involving sanctuary and other faith-based support for migrants, asylum-seekers or the unhoused as well as internal religious disagreements and the gap between governments’ reliance on religious charities and increased political tensions and backlash.

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  • Joshua D. Ambrosius

    Joshua D. Ambrosius is a professor at the University of Dayton. He regularly teaches courses related to urban housing and faith-based social policy and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to space exploration.

  • Catholic Charities USA

    Catholic Charities USA works in various areas such as adoption counseling, disaster relief, poverty awareness and raising awareness of social issues such as human trafficking and racial inequality. It works to provide aid to people in need and to activate the Catholic population to action. Kerry Alys Robinson is president & CEO.

  • Hebah Farrag

    Hebah Farrag is grants and impact assessment manager at Legal Aid at Work. Farrag is the former assistant director of research at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture, where she managed projects such as the Spiritual Exemplars project, a global initiative on engaged spirituality, which is tasked with collecting 100 profiles of exemplary people working to promote human flourishing.

  • Global Refuge

    Global Refuge — formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service — offers refugee resettlement, immigrant legal aid and  inclusion programs, asylum assistance, mental health services for migrants, crisis response and advocacy on behalf of American newcomers. Krish O’Mara Vignarajah is president and CEO.

  • HIAS

    HIAS, originally known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, has worked since 1881 to provide rescue, resettlement and reunion services to Jews in need throughout the world and to other oppressed migrants. Its headquarters are in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mark Hetfield is president, and Beth Oppenheim is CEO.

  • Kelly Ryan

    Kelly Ryan is president of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, which operates in 58 countries, serving refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in conflict zones and detention centers, on remote borders and in busy cities. Ryan is also a board member of the Inter-American Foundation and former adviser to the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Media contact is Bridget Cusick.

  • SecularHelp

    SecularHelp, also known as Secular Helping People Alliance, was founded with the mission of empowering people to find purpose and meaning free from the influence of religious, supernatural or pseudo-scientific beliefs. It offers secular meditation, legacy counseling and, through its Helping the Homeless program, direct, practical support to individuals experiencing homelessness. The president and executive director is Mark W. Gura.

     

Seeking meaning in an anxious age

Journalists are increasingly documenting a shift in how younger adults engage religion, with Generation Z and younger millennials showing growing interest in contemplative practices, pilgrimage and monastic-inspired forms of community life. 

Retreat centers report younger participants seeking silence, spiritual discipline and structure, while informal prayer groups, digital meditation communities and “ancient-future” worship experiments draw participants wary of denominational politics, while other young people are drawn to communities staking clear political stands. 

As many spiritual movements often emphasize embodied practice or vibes over belief statements and operate outside formal institutional oversight, it not only raises questions for established religious institutions about authority, formation and sustainability, but for journalists looking to cover these trends. Coverage will need to track how social media, mental-health concerns and climate anxiety shape this search for meaning, and whether these experiments signal long-term religious change or a transitional phase of spiritual exploration.

Consider reporting from retreat centers and pilgrimages, profiling new lay-led communities, examining the role of digital platforms and asking how institutions respond to younger generations’ skepticism and felt needs — or fail to.

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  • Elizabeth Bucar

    Liz Bucar’s research and writing covers a wide range of topics — from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing — but generally focuses on how a deeper understanding of religious difference can change our sense of what is right and good. She is the author of four books, including Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation, and the award-winning Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress. Bucar is also director of Sacred Writes: Public Scholarship on Religion, a grant-funded project that provides support, resources and networks for scholars of religion committed to translating the significance of their research to a broader audience.

  • Bethany Mandel

    Bethany Mandel is a conservative Jewish columnist, political and cultural commentator and co-author of Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation. She has been a vocal critic of the multifaith family movement.

  • Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst

    Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst is a religion professor and director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont. Her work focuses on the history of religion, Islamic practice and history, race and imperialism, and South Asian traditions.

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