If I asked you to describe the state of Christianity in Europe, you’d probably answer “not good.” And there’d be ample reason to do so. Most of us are familiar with the depressing statistics regarding church attendance in Western Europe and Scandinavia.
But there is more to Europe than Britain, France, and Sweden. And in Central and Eastern Europe, a different story is being written.
This story was the subject of a recent First Things article by Filip Mazurczak. In it, Mazurczak reveals to readers what is going on in former communist societies such as Hungary and Croatia. For instance, while the European Union notoriously omitted any mention of Europe’s Christian heritage in the preamble to its constitution, Hungary’s new constitution “ties Christianity to Hungarian nationhood.”
I’m glad that Eric Metaxas has called attention to this fascinating phenomenon, in which eastern and western Europe are clearly on diverging trajectories. His metaphor of the sun rising in the east but setting in the west is fitting, memorable, and absolutely true.
I read recently that in Russia alone, the Orthodox are opening or reopening several churches every week. It’s highly ironic that in the very places where the athiestic Communists did their best to annihilate Christianity for 70 years, the Church is experiencing revival. Meanwhile, in western Europe, which hasn’t experienced such persecution, Christianity is often in bad shape, with 5% of the population or less bothering to go to church each Sunday.
David Handy+