A top Roman Catholic Cardinal and the leader of the Church of England’s mission wing have both warned that Christianity is on the verge of extinction in Europe.
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna has warned in a sombre Easter address that the time of Christianity in Europe is coming to an end. Meanwhile, Mark Russell, who heads up the Church Army in England has warned that the Church ”˜is one generation away from extinction.’
Cardinal Schonborn said: “The time of Christianity in Europe is coming to an end. A Christianity, which achieved such great things like this cathedral or the wonderful music we will hear today.”
The sky does not fall, literally or religiously, no matter how much hand-wringing goes on. Christianity has continually flourished, even when undermined by apathy and under assault by persecution, when the truth of human sin and the redemptive work of Christ is proclaimed by the witness, not of bold words, but of people radically transformed into models of cheerful self-discipline, constructive generosity, and merciful forbearance.
I agree with the good Cardinal that Christianity has brought wonderful things to human culture.. art.. music.. architecture.. education. But these magnificent contributions to our shared life on this planet pales to insignificance next to what Christianity REALLY brings.
That, my brothers and sisters, is simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So long as that’s kept as our focus and purpose, Christianity will never die.
One of the heartlands of Christianity in the second and third century was North Africa (Tertullian, Perpetua, Cyprian, Augustine etc.)…
Ah yes. The secularists with their liberal “Christian” abettors are erasing the over a millenium history of Christianity in Europe.
“The time of Christianity in Europe is coming to an end. A Christianity, which achieved such great things like this cathedral or the wonderful music we will hear today.”
Please allow me to restate him in more accurate terms:
“The spreading of the Good News that the wrath of God upon sin and sinners has a wonderful solution is on-going in this time of grace. Out of the transformation that results from the acceptance of that Good News is a heart at peace; opened to worship and praise the Creator in wonderful ways, like this cathedral or the wonderful music we will hear today.”
This seems more accurate to me.
The other message is a sure loser and I’m not surprised that religion is failing in Europe.
Don
Jesus shall reign wherever the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till suns shall rise and set no more.
2. To Jesus endless prayer be made,
And praises throng to crown His head;
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.
3. People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their young Hosannas to His name.
4. Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blessed.
5. Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.
6. Let every creature rise and bring
Its grateful honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth prolong the loud amen!
7. Great God, whose universal sway
The known and unknown worlds obey,
Now give the kingdom to Thy Son,
Extend His power, exalt His throne.
8. The scepter well becomes His hands;
All heaven submits to His commands;
His justice shall avenge the poor,
And pride and rage prevail no more.
9. With power He vindicates the just,
And treads the oppressor in the dust:
His worship and His fear shall last
Till the full course of time be past.
10. As rain on meadows newly mown,
So shall He send his influence down:
His grace on fainting souls distills,
Like heavenly dew on thirsty hills.
11. The heathen lands, that lie beneath
The shades of overspreading death,
Revive at His first dawning light;
And deserts blossom at the sight.
12. The saints shall flourish in His days,
Decked in the robes of joy and praise;
Peace, like a river, from His throne
Shall flow to nations yet unknown.
Issac Watts – 1719
Duke Street
[blockquote]the Church ‘is one generation away from extinction.[/blockquote]
The church was, is and always will be one generation away from extinction and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
Here’s a suggestion, gentlemen. Stop trying to make the secular culture like you because it never will. And stop wasting time lamenting the death of Christianity in Europe and go do something about it. Preach the Gospel
#1: But these magnificent contributions to our shared life on this planet pales to insignificance next to what Christianity REALLY brings.”
There is a Catholic vision of the Church’s vocation that understands these “contributions to shared life on the planet” to be in no wise competitive with, and, indeed to be integral to, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is within Protestantism that explicit preaching of the gospel is divided from art, music, architecture–with the former championed by “conservatives” and the latter by “liberals.”
While it is true that Christianity in Europe may lose its prestige that it once had and may become smaller, I think in the end it will become better and more stable, not less. Perhaps it will cease to be the cultural norm, which is a good thing. Christians will choose to follow Christ not out of duty or because that’s what respectable people do, but because they do truly believe.
I think that might be a good thing.
The glorious and death rattling exception to the last sentence in your comment is the holy hospice patient named Anglo-Catholicism. But in spite of her robust Orthodoxy, liturgical beauty and lavish sacramental life is in as much, if not faster decline than TEC.
I lament this and do not understand it but my recent visits to several of the historic Anglo-Catholic shrine churches the vasty deep of empty pews and about as many people in the pews as on the altar and in the choir is utterly depressing.
A recent visit to St. Clement’s in Philadelphia on a Sunday in Lent felt like being in a beautiful museum with a handful of worshipers (half of whom were same sex couples) going down in perfumed glory with a sinking ship.
Why?!
#11. archangelica,
[blockquote]A recent visit to St. Clement’s in Philadelphia on a Sunday in Lent felt like being in a beautiful museum with a handful of worshipers (half of whom were same sex couples) going down in perfumed glory with a sinking ship.[/blockquote]
Do you see this as an example of “robust Orthodoxy” in Anglo-Catholicism? What do you mean by “robust” then?
#12
They hold to absolute creedal orthodoxy and reject liturgical innovations and other related abuses. The same sex couples are their to worship like the few others. They are welcomed with the love of Christ but no same sex blessings, marriages, etc. occur. I don’t get why the Latin Mass is having such a revival and not the Anglican equivalent: traditional Anglo-Catholicism.
#13. archangelica,
I don’t think you need to fret quite so much. Our Anglo-Catholic Diocese is growing. There is also an Evangelical and Charismatic aspect here along with the Anglo-Catholic. Maybe it is more of an area specific problem. How was the preaching at St. Clements?
I’m not sure it isn’t having a revival. I can name several extremely high church Anglo-catholic parishes that are booming.
Deacon Dale:
The preaching was erudite, warm, and inspiring. It was so very good, deeply orthodox and pastoral all at the same time. Listen to some of the rector’s podcasts. I just don’t understand why such a good thing on so many levels is so empty most of the time.
#16. archangelica,
I hope it is not a generation gap issue.
What seems to be dying is a cultural Catholicism and Protestantism, the kind of unthinking response that says ‘To be Irish/Polish/Spanish is to be Catholic’ ‘To be Swedish/Danish/North German is to be Lutheran’ ‘To be English is to be Anglican’ etc. I think that out of the wreckage of this state religion idea a new faith is being born, where men and women acknowledge Christ as the one who draws us into his risen life, as only he, the Son of God can do. Where faith is joined to national identity it is badly weakened once social sanctions are removed. Whether we are cradle Catholics or born-again charismatics, we have to have a sense of our relationship with Christ. Call it discipleship, perhaps.
The only exception I can think of in Europe to this weakening of the state religion idea is Russia, where an uncompromising Orthodoxy is joined to a narrow nationalism in frankly a rather frightening way. I have read informed commentators saying that some of the more thinking Russians are repelled by this crude nationalistic religion and are intrigued by Catholicism; hence, in part, the visceral and antagonistic response of the Orthodox to the presence of Catholics in Russia. They are frightened of it.
#18. Terry Tee,
I agree with your statements in general but need to understand better what you mean by this statement: [blockquote]….is Russia, where an uncompromising Orthodoxy is joined to a narrow nationalism in frankly a rather frightening way.[/blockquote]
Dale, the syllogism goes something like this:
1. to be Russian is to be Orthodox;
2. the Orthodox Church is the guardian of the Russian soul;
3. therefore not to be Orthodox (to be Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, etc) is to lack patriotism or true Russian spirit, and to be denounced by Orthodoxy. Hence the strong current of xenophobia within the Russian Orthodox Church; hence, too the continuing sale of The Protocols of Zion in church shops.
This all works out in various ways eg the Church receives enormous favors from the state, and in turn is there to bless an increasingly authoritarian leadership. I think (though ouught to admit that I have not checked this) that there are also links between the Orthodox Church and the nationalistic youth movement Nashi, which is prone to acts of violence.
I have avoided using the word fascistic but it crops up fairly often in Zoe Katrina Knox Russian Society and the Orthodox Church (Routledge, 2003) where her research leads her to conclude that the official church is opposed to a more open society.
Recent moves have made it very difficult for non-Orthodox churches to own property, or even to have legal personality.
#20. Terry Tee,
Thanks for the clarification. Separation of church and state sounds better to me as I age.
I suspect this article quotes the Cardinal out of context:
The Cardinal, who has tried to present the Church as more open-minded, said: “The Church can help people acquire the right attitude towards sex, which is not an isolated thing of all consuming importance. The quality of the entire relationship is what is important in a male-female partnership.”
In other words, fornication is bad, but the writer some how tags it with some hogwash about open-mindedness. That inconsistency makes me suspicious. For those who don’t know, Cardinal Schonborn led the development of The Catechism of the Catholic Church. It’s hard to see him as some sort of dissenter.
I thought that this was a really interesting take on the subject.
[url=http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2009/04/a-quick-response-to-the-christianity-trailing-off-thesis.html]merecomments[/url]
#9, I agree completely. I’d say, though, that one follows from the other.
To paraphrase Mark Twain:
“The reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.”