Tag Archives: Christendom

An Extreme Makeover of Christendom

 

The columnist Ross Douthat suggested that American Christians must find a way “to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom—and more and more like the diverse and complicated Empire where their religion had its beginning . . .” (From The New York Times News Service, 2010.)

We have witnessed an extreme makeover of the Christian-oriented western culture that was called Christendom. Christianity has lost much of its influence in the larger society. Much conflict in the stories I write focuses on the struggles of American Christians to deal with the changed views that surround them. Often the characters live for a time in other cultures where religion remains a part of everyday life.

They understand, as I did after similar experiences, how closely intertwined are religion and government in some non-Western nations. It is a part of the national identity of those societies. Should one group’s religion be forced on a society to preserve that identity?

Is preservation what drove the early Christians? Perhaps one key is found in Douthat’s observation that today’s society is much like that of the Roman Empire. The Christians of that day did not try to change the Empire with a political movement. Instead they caused the Empire to change itself because their way of living attracted people to Christianity.

Once Christianity became compulsory for all, it lost much of its power. Small groups within the state churches dared live the radical lifestyle of Christ and pass on the Christain faith. The outer life, which springs from the life within, cannot be forced.

 

Remnant Religion

Christian history fascinates: all the advances and retreats, deaths and resurrections of the church over the centuries. Such understanding allows perspective in these times of waning Christian influence in the old countries of “Christendom.”

The early Jewish church became the Gentile church (championed by the missionary, Paul). Following barbarian invasions and Muslim conquests, the church split into Byzantine and Roman. The Byzantine (eastern) church at first flourished while the Roman (western) church languished in the backwaters of a primitive Europe. The Turkish Ottoman Empire eclipsed Byzantium, then came close to conquering Europe following the disastrous Crusades.

Europe and the church survived, but movements like the Renaissance stirred new thinking and brought on the Reformation. Wars for power, sometimes cloaked in religious garb, led to pietists and puritans and to the English church’s break with Rome. The resulting Christian communities fought slavery and poverty and spawned the modern missionary movement, leading to growth in non-Christendom countries of Asia and the southern hemisphere.

Today few barriers prevent anyone in this country who desires it from becoming a church member, yet many churches are dying. As happens over and over, Christians become a remnant, even as the church grows in poorer countries and in nations where Christian commitment can be dangerous.

Christendom is Dead

Mohandas Gandhi, leader of the movement in India in the mid-twentieth century to gain independence from Great Britain, is reported to have said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Some suggest that Gandhi leaned toward Christianity for himself but changed his mind after observing Christians.

Christianity is alive and well, growing mightily in certain regions of the globe and even among some groups where it was supposed to be buried. Christendom, however, that European-centered common culture that Gandhi probably knew, began dying several hundred years ago. Gandhi’s words hint at the reasons.

The European church in the Middle Ages became increasingly corrupt and power hungry. Those who wanted to purify the church or who believed that the common person had the right to read the Bible in his or her own language were persecuted.

Then the Reformation movements of the 1500’s gave promise of a revival of Christianity in Europe. Instead, that promise was eclipsed by the religious wars that followed. In the name of religion, conflicts killed thousands, led to massive refugee flows, and devastated parts of Europe. Not surprisingly, some began to see religion as the problem and to search for other ways of ordering society.

As Europeans gained world power, they too often exploited native peoples in other regions, as in India. Their practices lessened the impact of Christians who came as missionaries, not conquerors.

We Christians sometimes act as though the truths of our faith are self-evident and that people who disagree with us are either idiots or morally deficient. We have to learn anew that the way we live carries more influence than our words.

 

Christianity’s Success: A Problem?

C.S. Lewis mentioned in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy, how his early life at a “vile” boarding school prepared him for real life. It taught him, he said, to live by hope. At school, hope of the holidays sustained him. During holidays, however, the knowledge that even the best of vacations must end, prepared him for not accepting present situations, even favorable ones, at face value.

Dark times can include seeds of victory and success may hint of struggles to come.

When Christianity at first was rejected by religious leaders and persecuted by secular ones, it grew mightily. When finally it found success and even power as it joined with worldly governments, it suffered from schisms and disharmony. Then Muslims conquered much of the lands that had spawned Christianity. Turks overthrew the last of the Byzantine Empire, and a reduced Christianity was left to the backwaters of a primitive Europe.

Christian leaders developed, and the new printing press spread their ideas. Christianity prospered, increasing the faith of many and bringing deeper understanding. Then adherents of various religious movements tied it to political alliances. Their actions contributed to a lessening of Christian influence and to the rationalism of the eighteenth century in the Western world.

Christianity revived in the nineteenth century and became even more influential, leading directly or indirectly to the abolishment of slavery, the improvement of women’s status, and various programs to alleviate the sufferings of the poor.

It was popular to be a Christian, and Christianity was carried to vast reaches of the world as Europe and America, the “West,” became dominant.

Now we are inheritors of that time and are surprised to find that Christianity has lost its primary position in the West. In truth, Christianity is always carried out by a remnant living within the world. When the influence of that remnant is great, Christian principles weave into our laws and our ways of life. Success, however, brings the temptation to ally with Caesar and Mammon— power and wealth. That alliance may injure us. We must again earn the right to be taken seriously.