Why don't intellectuals convert to Protestantism?

No great awakening

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, once a prominent atheist, recently converted to Christianity. Tyler comments here, noting that intellectuals who convert to a religion — of whom there are increasingly many — rarely end up as Protestants.

I am a Protestant, so this disappoints me. I can think of a few reasons why Protestantism struggles among intellectuals, especially in contrast to Catholicism:

Anti-intellectualism: Protestantism often has a reputation for being anti-intellectual. This has very much not been my experience, but sadly it is true of some people and churches. By contrast, Catholicism has a strong intellectual culture – perhaps at times too strong – and it’s not seen as intellectually questionable to adhere to it.

Lack of ‘woo’ in Protestantism: this depends heavily on the kind of Protestant church you go to. Some charismatic churches have people speaking in tongues and music close to that of a concert. However, mainline and conservative churches tend to have a very strait-laced service, with few bells or incense and a focus on the content of the sermon. If you are looking for a sensory experience when you go to church each Sunday, this ain’t it.

Secularism: many Catholics blame Protestantism and its intellectual descendants for the Enlightenment, and therefore identity politics and all the things they don’t like about the modern Left. There are lots of progressive Protestant churches, which seem to confirm this thesis. There are also plenty of counter-examples, though, especially among conservative evangelicalism. 

These differences aren’t limited to Protestantism – if you read a few Ross Douthat columns, it seems there are plenty of conservative and non-conservative factions with Catholicism.

Relatedly, Protestantism largely embraces modernity, and many right-leaning intellectuals are decidedly against it. In Protestantism, family sizes are often smaller, ministers can get married, democracy is ok, individuals can interpret the Bible themselves rather than needing the church to do it, transubstantiation doesn’t happen, and more. Catholicism, by contrast, often involves significant changes in opposition to modern culture on all of those fronts (though not on every single front; they have often encouraged innovations like workers’ rights).

Aesthetics and high culture: Catholicism embraces images and has a strong view of high culture; it has a strong visual culture to draw on and lots of music. Protestants eschew images almost entirely and instead focus on the words of the Bible; high culture isn’t very high status and there isn’t loads of culture in general that’s decidedly Protestant.

There are a few things that can cut either way: family ties often pull people back to a religion, but plenty of intellectuals come from Protestant backgrounds. Catholicism is so counter-cultural as to be cool for some people, but there are plenty of people online who act like being Protestant is trendy too. Scandals have beset both Protestant and Catholic churches in recent years (it’s difficult to judge whether other religions have had similar problems). Ceremony is another attraction to Catholicism, but there are plenty of Protestant denominations who offer liturgical or even ‘high’ church practices.

Geography is a mixed bag. Most intellectuals are based in large cities, especially New York, Washington D.C., and London. The reality is that there simply aren’t loads of healthy Protestant churches there – they are most common in non-urban, non-coastal areas. There’s a reason that Tim Keller moving to plant an evangelical church in New York City was such a big deal at the time. But there are definitely some Protestant churches if you look for them, because those cities are big enough that there is demand for virtually every religion. They might just be harder to find.

Politics aren’t very explanatory here. You could say that conservative evangelicals are tainted by Trump, but most of these people aren’t exactly progressive even before they convert!

I’ve mainly focused on the comparison with Catholicism here, because I’m most familiar with it, but the LDS church is in some ways more modern than Protestantism and they rank higher on Tyler’s list. I don’t know loads about contemporary Judaism, but the existence of the state of Israel perhaps gives the religion a bit more of a temporal feel. Eastern Orthodox feels like a more mystical, iconographical version of Catholicism in this context, but its footprint in the West feels very light. None of these three are strong forces in the UK or Ireland and personally I don’t know any converts to them.

Even though different Protestant denominations compensate for at least some of the possible downsides I outlined above, neither Charismatic, Reformed (conservative evangelical), nor mainline churches seem to have gained many converts from the intellectual classes. These denominations are thriving in the non-Western world among ordinary people, by contrast.

Having said all that, I have to admit this post speculative. I’m more familiar with evangelicals ‘deconstructing’ and leaving church altogether than I am with non-religious people finding God. So if you’re a religious convert, I’m keen to hear what I’ve missed…