If religion is going to continue to be relevant, it is going to need to change. (To evolve, one might say.) This may actually be happening.

I have been encountering a growing number of self-identified Christians, Americans and Europeans, who reject the supernaturalistic doctrines of traditional Christianity. They regard Jesus as a man who had a neat idea (let's be good to each other and not worry about money so much), and they try to live their lives according to that idea. (Most are Anglican/Episcopalian or Unitarian, but there have also been evangelical types among them. I even met a Catholic couple who feel this way.)

In part, perhaps this is a reaction to the growing radicalisation of certain elements of Christianity (kind of like with the US Republican Party: the moderates either get driven out or leave in disgust, until only the extremists are left), but I like to think that the "New Atheism" is helping out. (I still don't get what is supposed to be so new about it.) I wonder if this is going to coalesce into a "movement." Could be the biggest thing since the Protestant Reformation. (One hopes that, at the very least, it won't be quite so bloody.)

A marginally-related question: does anybody know of a good book I could check out that tackles the question of whether Jesus was a real historical individual or not?