The Next Nation, the Next Church

The New Center: A Wednesday Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari

Many thanks to Nina for holding down the fort alone while I was on vacation. I’ve been spending this past week in a suburb of West Palm Beach (yes, we summer in Florida—long story—don’t ask). My first week here prompts me to share some loose observations about what we might call the next American nation, borrowing the title of Michael Lind’s 1995 book, and what it might mean for the Catholic Church.

By the next American nation, I simply mean the parts of the country that are experiencing population growth, as well as a hard-to-quantify-but-no-less-real sense of dynamism. While population growth isn’t the be all, end all of national or regional success, it is an important indicator of the overall health of a place, since it means that people venture to move there or to bring new life into it.