Hey mk "In the US, I think you might find that our urban development promoted this loneliness. With the rise of suburbia, porches disappeared, the distance between houses increased, and kitchens faced the back yard. Many Americans live in physical isolation, and mostly encounter other people through planned activities." I think your statements about physical isolation is an important variable to consider when discussing the rise of NRM. I feel like the development of mass urbanization in the 20th century is tightly correlated with mass secularization. As a consequence of this I feel like many people experience extreme loneliness. I guess I feel like secular society needs to combat this in some way. We need to either re-design the infrastructure of our societies to promote integration and improve social life or we need to actively foster an inclusive community identity to replace what religious institutions provided in past centuries.