Is there (Or Will There Ever Be) An "Awakening" in Religion

It was almost a decade ago I read an article in a Christian academic journal that admonished scholars and preachers to stop telling others what the faith is about and listening to those in the pews. While preachers certainly try to avoid making those who pay their salaries angry, church goers in the pews, they do not systematically compile what nonclergy are thinking. 

 A scholar in the Jewish faith has come to believe the economic model of religion in the U.S. has failed. That model is local buildings and national or international scholarship at the home office (including Universities and seminaries) all funded by donations. The numbers are falling across all faiths practiced in the U.S., Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, etc. A steady stream of people in all faiths is leaving, deciding they do not want to pay for the building, the shaman standing in front or the scholars at the home office hashing over religious minutiae.  

The link proposes a broad study about where people are going to satisfy their interest in things ethereal. The author claims new patterns of interest and thought can be discovered with enough effort. He is certain what will emerge is something altogether different than the church and home office model of the last century or two. Apparently, he and others will cast a wide net over several faiths and learn what people who have left are doing and thinking. I suppose one conclusion will be the futility of trying to put the genie of the current economic model back into its bottle. Where things are headed is yet to be known but, the Rabi promises, will be published in due time.  

While I wish the Rabbi and his colleagues well, I think his project falls into the thinking of the modern world. It assumes if you study something you will understand it. And, once you understand it you can organize it. If the marketplace and politics are mirrors of religion, religion will move into territory unknown and unexpected. While many will be trying to predict where it is headed few will be right and most will be wrong.  

That the Rabbi uses the word "awakening" itself puts him in a box instead of outside the box. It implies there is something universal going on in religious thought. Maybe there is nothing going on. Or, maybe what is going on is so broad and diverse in defies a definition.