The State of Theology: What Do People Really Believe in 2018?

What do people believe about God, Jesus Christ, sin, and eternity? Ligonier’s State of Theology survey helps uncover the answers. Every two years, we take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better understand today’s culture and equip the church with better insights for discipleship.

As in 2014 and 2016, we commissioned a survey of three thousand Americans in partnership with LifeWay Research. Today, we are pleased to release the results from our 2018 survey.

This year’s survey both confirmed previous findings and brought some unexpected results. Year after year, we are seeing the increasing grip of relativism on our culture and deep confusion among evangelicals. For example: 91 percent of evangelicals affirm that people are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, but 51 percent of evangelicals also believe that God accepts the worship of all religions. How can this be? What do Americans—and people in the pew—really believe?

Recorded live in Seattle, watch as Lee Webb asks people about their religious beliefs:

You can find all the survey results at TheStateOfTheology.com, including a discussion of key findings and a data explorer that allows you to compare results by age, region, church attendance, and more. You can also see how people’s answers have changed over the past four years.

Please explore the website and use the data any way you would like. We encourage you to freely share it with pastors, missionaries, researchers, seminary students, and friends and family. And don't forget to take the survey yourself and see how your answers compare.

For analysis of the data from LifeWay Research, please see their official white paper or download the entire survey with key findings.