Page
Post-Christendom
Completion requirements
We hear more and more that the West has become a post-Christian society. By “the West,” we mean Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. But what does “post-Christian” mean?
Declining Church Attendance
Surveys and studies consistently show a decline in church attendance and religious affiliation. The fastest-growing religious group in the United States is “no religious affiliation,” sometimes called the “nones.” This decline is particularly pronounced among younger generations. To fill the empty space left by this loss of faith, we might expect to see a rise in alternative spiritualities.
Changing Social Attitudes
There has been a noticeable shift in recent years on subjects like same-sex marriage, abortion, not to mention other issues that at one time were relatively obscure, such as gender identity or gender transitioning. These changes reflect a shift in public attitudes away from traditional Christian understandings that once were overwhelmingly dominant.
Religious Diversity
As Canada and European countries have experienced quite significant immigration from countries with other dominant religions, the religious demographics of the countries to which they moved has understandably shifted as well. Even the United States has become increasingly diverse, with growing numbers of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and adherents to other faiths.
Secularism
Western countries are effectively secular in nature, claiming to be religiously neutral in their practices. The non-establishment of religion clause of the U.S. Constitution has typically been taken to mean that public spaces need to be religiously neutral. Even though Great Britain has a King who is technically considered the head of the Church of England, it is understood that the laws and practices of the land are to be religiously neutral.
There was a time when a country like the United States or Great Britain at least appeared to be predominantly Christian. Most people went to church. Most people would say they believed in the Bible. Most people would have agreed with the Ten Commandments. There was a certain common ground among the vast majority, and we might say that “Judeo-Christian values” stood at the foundations of society and culture.
What are Judeo-Christian values? In relation to governance and society, they surely involve a sense that all human beings are equally created in the image of God (Gen.1:26-27) and, therefore, that all persons stand equal before the law. “Thou shalt not murder.” “Thou shalt not steal.” “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” These commandments are expressions of the love command that Jesus said was the fullness of God’s requirements for us (Matt. 22:36-40). Interestingly, while Western societies may confess Christian faith less and less, their legal systems continue to embody many core Judeo-Christian values.
While Western societies may confess Christian faith less and less, their legal systems continue to embody many core Judeo-Christian values.
If Western cultures less and less openly profess Christian faith, we might at least raise the opposite question, one that ultimately only God can answer. How truly Christian were these countries when the majority professed faith? This is a question often asked of the early church in the 300s when the Romans stopped persecuting Christians, and, in a sense, all Romans instantly became Christians. When the culture expected you to be a Christian, how many truly were?
In the 1950s, a theologian by the name of Richard Niebuhr suggested that we tend to have unexamined assumptions about the way Christianity should relate to the surrounding culture. They show us that there has been more than one way that Christians have engaged it.
- Christ against culture – Some Christians assume that the broader culture will always be its enemy. Their response is to withdraw, to retreat into bubbles and enclaves of safety. They may only minimally participate in the broader culture.
- The Christ of culture – Some Christians adjust their Christianity to fit with broader cultural trends even when those trends go against core Christian values. They accommodate their faith to the culture.
- Christ above culture – Some Christians try to take over the culture and dominate it. They become very political and may fuse their faith with some form of Christian nationalism.
- Christ and culture in paradox – Still another approach is to keep one’s faith and one’s existence in society separate, unintegrated. You serve God on Sunday with your spirit. Then, you live on the world’s terms with your body during the week.
- Christ the transformer of culture – This perspective attempts to be an influence on the world for good. It maintains its integrity while engaging culture with a view to change it, but not necessarily in a forceful way.
Which one of these best fits your sense of how the Church should engage culture? In a post-Christian world, the third becomes less and less possible, making those with a bias toward #3 more and more frustrated. Meanwhile, there will be increasing pressure to withdraw (1), accommodate (2), or simply live two different lives within the culture (4). You could argue that the transition from a Christian to a post-Christian culture brings great upheaval within the church itself, not least because of tensions within the church between these biases. Is the ideal in any society to embody the fifth option, or does the ideal stance really depend on the time and place or even one’s individual calling?
The key question of this course is how Christians can be salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16) in a culture that, at best, is uninterested in Christian faith and, at worst, is openly hostile toward it?