Christian argues that the age of decentralization will and should spawn many new religions, cults, and “micro spiritual subcultures,” because a community only becomes a true tribe once it can answer “the big questions of life” — death, the sacred, virtue, the good life — that modern society has stripped out, leaving life disenchanted and meaningless. He says the most successful communities (Amish, Mennonites, Jews, Mormons) all run on “religion as an operating system” with a startup-nation inside it, and the most direct path to building a tribe in America is practicing Christianity, though he personally stays “spiritually homeless,” wanting a faith with teeth, ecstasy, vitalism, ecology, and direct communion with God. His core principles are “don’t convert others and don’t save the world,” “be something, not everything,” and “leadership, not divine profits,” learning from why 1960s-80s cults failed and from esoteric orders like the Sufis, Zen lineages, and Kabbalists.
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New religions as a feature of decentralization: He predicts and welcomes a proliferation of micro-religions, arguing universalist mass religions that try to convert everyone end in world wars while many small ones with mutual respect let people live toward a unique ideal.
Religion as a group evolutionary strategy: He defines religion (distinct from individual spirituality) as a shared practice and value system that transmits culture, myth, and values across generations — “the best group evolutionary strategy ever created” and the source of any people’s “soul.”
Christianity as the most direct path: He says becoming a practicing Christian offers historical resonance, a proven cohesive ethos, and ready-made movements (the Catholic return-to-land movement, Christian homesteading villages like Jonathan England’s in Costa Rica), tied to America’s original frontiersman “city on a hill” identity.
Why he stays “spiritually homeless”: At 28, after a decade in ashrams, esotericism, and comparative religion, he finds Christianity too “domesticated” and criticizes how the feminine was handled across Orthodox traditions; he wants teeth, ecstasy, whimsy, discipline, the heroic ideal, vitalism, ecology, and direct communion.
Principles for building tribes: Don’t convert or try to save everyone (which breeds totalitarian tyranny), “be something, not everything,” and pursue “leadership, not divine profits”; he cites Gen Z polls (~75% “spiritual but not religious”) as raw material and promotes his Retribalize.ai app and rotating co-living houses.
