It is 2009’s quiet story — quiet because it’s about what didn’t happen, which can be as important as what did. In this highly partisan year, we did not see a sharpening of the battles over religion and culture. Yes, we continued to fight over gay marriage, and arguments about abortion were a feature of the health-care debate. But what’s more striking is that other issues — notably economics and the role of government — trumped culture and religion in the public square.

The culture wars went into recession along with the economy. The most important transformation occurred on the right end of politics. For now, the loudest and most activist sections of the conservative cause are not its religious voices but the mostly secular, anti-government tea party activists.

Especially revealing is the re-emergence of former House majority leader Dick Armey, a prime mover behind the tea parties and a longtime critic of the religious right. He once said that James Dobson of Focus on the Family and his allies were a “gang of thugs” and “real nasty bullies.”

Armey and his supporters speak a libertarian language that contrasts sharply with the message of Christian conservatives. “When Republicans are fighting against the power of the state, we win,” Armey told the New York Times recently. “When we are trying to advance it, we lose.”

At the same time, President Obama has been unabashed in offering his views on religious questions. Two of the most important speeches of his first year — his addresses at the Notre Dame graduation in May and in Oslo this month when he received the Nobel Peace Prize — were suffused with the language of faith. At Notre Dame, the president lavishly praised the Catholic social justice tradition. In Oslo, he spoke as a Christian realist clearly conversant with the ideas of Reinhold Niebuhr, the great 20th-century theologian.

On President Bush’s faith-based initiative, Obama has made reforms but largely avoided or postponed dealing with the most controversial questions.

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