In many ways Britain is decidedly religious: it has a state church, state-funded faith schools, it extends significant toleration to religion, Prime Ministers Blair and Brown are committed Christians, and over three-quarters of the population reported having a religion in the last census. Yet Britain is also styled a secular country with a secular state. Politicians ‘keep religion out of politics’, new equalities and anti-discrimination legislation undermines the autonomy of many religious groups, church attendance has declined precipitously, and British intellectuals like Dawkins have helped launch a new secularism. This paper explores these paradoxes, and in doing so suggests that the British case highlights inadequacies in existing frameworks for thinking about state, society and religion – including dichotomies between ‘religion and secularity’ and ‘public and private’.  The paper suggests an alternative approach, which pays more attention to religious variety, religion's diverse social locations, and the changing role of the nation-state.