If you go to the Google Culturomics site and type in “Jesus” in English language publications, you’ll see that after sinking steadily from the middle of the 19th century, usage incidence plateaued between 1940 and 1980, and then began to climb, such that it’s now at the level it was it was in 1900. “God” and “Bible” are where it was in 1900; “Christian” and “Gospel,” to 1910.

What does this say about secularization in contemporary society? Obviously, the appearance of these words in particular publications is not exactly determinative. But there’s certainly something to ponder in the apparent decline in the secularization of the printed word over the course of the past generation.