Can confessionalism be revived?

Here is a great interview with Ross Douthat of the New York Times exploring the themes of his new book “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics", chronicling the decline in institutional Christianity in the United States over the last fifty years.

Douthat hopes for a return to confessionalism and strong institutional churches as a way to address the issues facing contemporary Christianity.

Confessionalism does seem to be undergoing a minor revival among Christians online (as shown by this blog and many others) and within mainline Protestant denominations more traditional churches seem to be holding their own in the context of overall decline.

However there are several barriers to a widespread confessional revival:

1. The basis of confessionalism, the confessions themselves, were composed in the sixteenth to eighteen centuries and carry a lot of archaic language and historical context that is not directly relevant to the way theological issues are discussed by most people today
2. In many cases, even “confessional" churches downplay or ignore sections of the historical confessions
3. Most importantly, the members of confessional churches frequently don't know, understand or necessarily agree with the key confessional beliefs of their denomination and (more positively) reject an exclusive, sectarian approach to Christianity

Is there a way then to preserve all that is good about a confessional approach while ensuring it is relevant and viable?

For Lutherans this could potentially take the form of a dynamic new expression of the essence of our historic confessions.

However the more intriguing possibility may cross denominations.  We are seeing signs that traditional Christians of all denominations recognise they have much in common in the face of secular and “accommodationist" trends.  Perhaps it is time for a grand ecumenical council in the tradition of the early church councils - a Chalcedon for our age.