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Reason & Free Inquiry in sermons

Reason & Free Inquiry comes up in 3.8% of the 49,328 transcribed sermons on Divining, most often in Unitarian Universalist (6.7%), United Church of Christ (3.4%), Jewish (2.9%) churches. It is preached less since 2025 (3.3% of sermons, down from 4.1%).

3.8% of sermons1,872 sermons14 denominations

Sermons on this theme talk about reason and, free inquiry, rational, sound thinking, science and faith, question authority, search for truth, open mind. Part of Liberal-Religious / UU. Least common in Catholic churches (0.0%).

Year by year

ProgressiveMainlineBlack churchEvangelicalAll churches
0%2%4%6%8%10%201620182020202220242026Progressive 2016: 5.9%Progressive 2017: 9.3%Progressive 2018: 6.7%Progressive 2019: 2.8%Progressive 2020: 5.3%Progressive 2021: 4.3%Progressive 2022: 6.2%Progressive 2023: 7.5%Progressive 2024: 9.4%Progressive 2025: 9.0%Progressive 2026: 8.4%Mainline 2016: 0.0%Mainline 2018: 6.0%Mainline 2019: 0.0%Mainline 2020: 0.6%Mainline 2021: 0.3%Mainline 2022: 0.5%Mainline 2023: 4.4%Mainline 2024: 2.2%Mainline 2025: 3.6%Mainline 2026: 2.8%Black church 2022: 0.0%Black church 2023: 7.1%Black church 2024: 1.8%Black church 2025: 1.7%Black church 2026: 1.0%Evangelical 2016: 3.4%Evangelical 2017: 2.0%Evangelical 2018: 0.4%Evangelical 2019: 1.2%Evangelical 2020: 1.4%Evangelical 2021: 0.5%Evangelical 2022: 0.5%Evangelical 2023: 1.4%Evangelical 2024: 2.6%Evangelical 2025: 1.7%Evangelical 2026: 1.7%All churches 2016: 4.4%All churches 2017: 5.7%All churches 2018: 4.1%All churches 2019: 1.9%All churches 2020: 4.3%All churches 2021: 2.3%All churches 2022: 4.0%All churches 2023: 5.9%All churches 2024: 6.1%All churches 2025: 5.6%All churches 2026: 2.7%

By denomination

Unitarian Universalist: 6.7% of 21,206 sermonsUnitarian Universalist6.7%United Church of Christ: 3.4% of 2,752 sermonsUnited Church of Christ3.4%Jewish: 2.9% of 242 sermonsJewish2.9%United Methodist: 2.4% of 3,745 sermonsUnited Methodist2.4%Christian / non-denominational: 1.8% of 7,785 sermonsChristian / non-denominational1.8%African Methodist Episcopal: 1.4% of 1,402 sermonsAfrican Methodist Episcopal1.4%Mennonite: 1.3% of 227 sermonsMennonite1.3%Lutheran: 1.1% of 639 sermonsLutheran1.1%Unity: 1.1% of 844 sermonsUnity1.1%Presbyterian: 1.0% of 300 sermonsPresbyterian1.0%Baptist: 0.9% of 6,663 sermonsBaptist0.9%Orthodox: 0.7% of 305 sermonsOrthodox0.7%Episcopal: 0.2% of 2,010 sermonsEpiscopal0.2%Catholic: 0.0% of 334 sermonsCatholic0.0%

All churches: 3.8%. Denominations with 150+ tagged sermons.

Preached alongside

Themes that share a sermon with Reason & Free Inquiry more often than chance (×2 = twice as often as in sermons overall).

Humanism ×3.1Pluralism & Interfaith ×2.94th Principle: Free & Responsible Search ×2.5Interdependence & Nature ×2.4Unitarian Universalist Identity ×2.11st Principle: Inherent Worth & Dignity ×2.0The Fall ×2.0Beloved Community ×1.9

Churches that preach it most

Listen to sermons on Divining

Share of transcribed sermons on Divining with at least one chapter on a theme, from Divining’s topic segmenter; 2016 to Nov 2026. Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Site map · Divining: a deeper search for meaning · build_seo_pages v0.0.1