For the last few centuries Christianity and Enlightenment views have formed western culture. The contribution of Christianity has been downplayed by modern secular thought, but it has been seminal in area after area: personal formation, economics, social life, politics, art, music, learning, science and healing, yet its influence has receded.
In the 20th century the secular movements of Fascism, Marxism, Modernism and State Socialism flourished. The Fascist belief in the pure power to shape history glorified militarism. Marxismsought salvation in the proletariat and Modernism posited belief in the human ability to capture and control the future without faith. They all tried to write Christianity out of the script, but failed, partlybecause the fruits of these movements were political evils like the Holocaust, the Stalinist Gulag and Fascist self-belief. The costs of these failures were enormous, and Europe forfeited the right to cultural leadership. Its self-congratulation was expressed in imperial movements of conquest around the globe and these too faltered as the self-glorification of empire turned out to be hollow and destructive. By contrast the Christian missionary movements, often self-sacrificial and largely committed to local language and culture (for example, with the Wycliffe Bible Translators), produced fruit that has flowered in every continent of the globe.
Not only political but also economic leadership passed to the United States. It was more explicitly Christian than Europe, but the Christianity was increasingly formed by secular forces. The United States adopted the role of superpower, taking on board some of the characteristics of Fascism, both in its militarism and support of military dictators, and in its trust of leaders who turned out to be footloose to justice, peace and truthfulness. In its economic policy the United States worshipped the so-called free market as a self-validating and supreme economic instrument, supposedly incapable of wrong. They also worshipped capitalism as the self-directing power of the entrepreneur to shape human economic history whether in the form of General Motors or McDonald’s.
This economic faith had already been challenged in 1929 by theWall Street Crash and the subsequent recession, but the advent of World War II and the assertion that State Socialism was the only alternative saw the model through. In the late 20th century it asserted worldwide influence and spread. The culture that the United States has conveyed to the world in the decades since has been a long way from Christianity. Especially in the era of Reagan and Thatcher a further recrudescence of laissez-faire capitalism and individualism spread round the world, accompanied by an individualistic consumerism that triumphantly proclaimed the creation of wealth.
It was feted, because it produced servility in other nations to its way of operating. But that way was dramatically divergent from the Christian way. It ignored the truth that most of what has value is initially given by God in the creation ‘energy, food, bodies, water’ and we merely add value to what we have been given, mainlythrough labour. It also ignored the fact that markets are human communities requiring fairness, good products and services and trust in transactions.
There are good and bad markets, and apart from arms, drugs, prostitution and alcohol, there have been many other addictive and destructive markets or ones that operate unfairly. For
decades people have been flattered and bribed into overspending through adverts and credit. This has created a bankrupt culture in which government debt, national trade debt and a personal credit crisis will require years of adjustment. Moreover the global warming crisis, again led by the United States’ levels of consumption, hangs over this profligate
consumer culture in judgment on all of us.
The United States therefore faces a point of cultural judgment, and it is especially one which requires the dissociation of Christian norms and culture from those of a terminal western indulgent individualism. This will not be easy. The Gospel of peace has been locked in the same room with superpower militarism. American nationalism has been dressed in borrowed Christian clothes that do not fit. The proclamation of self-gratification and self-worth has drowned out self-denial and the acknowledgement of sin. The good life has moved from righteousness to affluent consumption. Piety has become entertainment, and selflessness the promotion of personalities.
As a result of this antimony, the United States has been losing cultural authority in the Christian world, as is much of the west. This larger problem of compromised Christianity dwarfs the problems of the Episcopal Church in the States, but supplies much of its context. This dissociation will require decades and be very painful, but Christian ways are the decisive alternative to this bankrupt westernism.
We in Britain will also face a similar process, but the Kingdom of God insists on coming on its own terms and for that we should all rejoice.
–This article appeared in the Church of England Newspaper, January 15, 2009 edition, on page 9
