The British religious sociologist Gordon Lynch touches on the subject of the new atheism at an early stage during his lecture. “I do not know whether it has really hit Sweden yet?” he asks his audience, the Nordic Research Network on the Mediatisation of Religion and Culture, which has gathered for another conference on religion, the media and culture. Some nod, while he continues to talk about the “aggression” in what looks like a sudden, organised atheist offensive across the Western world.

It is December, and the place is the peaceful Sigtuna Foundation. The Professor of Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck College London is here to talk about one of his specialist fields—the interplay between religion, the media and popular culture in contemporary society. He is one of the foremost theoreticians in the field and has written about his research and his views in, among other works, Unders...