Growing numbers of people in Britain are defining themselves as Christian nationalists, according to a new survey — but the majority of them are not churchgoing Christians.  

The report, “Beyond Christian Nationalism — Measuring Attitudes to Christianity and Britishness Today,” published by the reputable think tank Theos, surveyed 1,765 people. It shows that more than 10% of those surveyed identify as Christian nationalists.  

The movement is relatively new in Britain but has caused concern, including among bishops who have tried to disassociate the established Church of England from it following large demonstrations and some well-known far-right, anti-migrant activists saying that they have become Christians.  

According to the Theos study, about 11% of those surveyed — more than 1 in 10 Britons — have views that resemble those of Christian nationalists. These people embody an ideology that merges national identity with their idea of Christianity and believe that it should be central to British culture and given prominence over other faiths and secular views.  

The 11%, termed “identity integrationists” by the study, had a strong identification with Christianity, yet just 13% of this group reported attending church weekly, only slightly above the 11% average for church attendance across the whole survey. There was much more enthusiasm from them, however, for the Bible — just under half of them expressed an interest in it — and just under a third said they prayed every week.  

This group showed hostility to Islam and were disinclined to follow church doctrine on welcoming the stranger: Only 19% agreed that Christianity requires supporting asylum seekers.  

The report shows that their Christianity is cultural rather than doctrinal and that they are “deeply, indeed viscerally, culturally Christian.” 

Another group, termed “belief integrationists,” holds stronger religious beliefs in the nationalism-Christianity equation and are considerably less hostile to immigration. Almost half (48%) agreed that Christian values require welcoming and supporting asylum seekers. These “belief integrationists” made up 13% of those surveyed. Among this group, 31% attend church every week, 46% pray weekly and 62% expressed an interest in the Bible. 

Despite being less hostile to asylum seekers, the report says that “a remarkable two-thirds of this group hold to the Great Replacement Theory (of white people being replaced by immigrants).” 

The final sector defined by Theos is another integrationist group — people who believe there should be some integration between Christianity and Britishness. The “values integrationists” make up 26% of those surveyed and want Britain defended from external threats. While they have a strong sense of Christian values as part of Britain’s heritage, they do not feel threatened by what is happening today.   

The report also highlights how divided Britain is over the role of Christianity. Sizable numbers of people want it to have no public role — despite the nation having an established church, with 26 Church of England bishops sitting in the Parliament’s second chamber, the House of Lords. About half the population wants to keep Christianity out of politics, with 34% of those surveyed saying that they want politics free from faith — people Theos calls “committed separatists.” It describes another 16% as “cultural separatists,” who are similarly opposed to religion being involved in politics but are more strongly nationalist.  

Although these people tend to have secularist views, these groups also include people who are Christian who believe there should be no connection between church and state and are found in what in Britain calls free churches, such as traditional Baptist ones.  

The Theos report has been welcomed as one of the first major studies delving into Christian nationalism in Britain. John Heathershaw, professor of international relations at the University of Exeter and research associate at the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, said that until now there has been little robust research into the topic.

“The survey is useful because Christian nationalism is not a coherent ideology, and not a social and political movement but a cluster of attitudes,” he said.  

The most worrying aspect found by the survey, Heathershaw told RNS, is the sizable number of people who believe that there is a concerted effort to replace Britain’s population with another group.  

“It shows right across the survey that 37% of people support the Great Replacement Theory. That is remarkable and troubling,” he said.  

Tim Wyatt, a leading commentator on Christianity in Britain and author of “The Critical Friend” Substack, said the Theos report offers useful insight into what is happening in Britain today, but that there is a risk in paying too much attention to its findings.  

“It would be too easy for mainstream Christians to hold their noses and see Christian nationalists as bigots, to write them off as irredeemable racists.”  

Instead, said Wyatt, their interest in Christianity should be seen as an opportunity. “Mainstream Christians should be willing to talk to them, to sit down and talk about who they think Jesus is and what he teaches.”  

Wyatt said that for many Christian nationalists who do not attend church — the group Theos calls “identities integrationists” — their ideas “are based on nostalgia, wanting to reach back and conjure an England of their imaginations,” of a kind portrayed in television dramas such as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, with the entirely white population of a village turning out en masse for Sunday service.  

“The irony is,” said Wyatt, “that in larger towns and cities the survival of churches is propped up by ethnic groups. As the face of British Christianity changes, these people are harking back to what they think it used to be.”