Trends and movements come and go. Within nations and kingdoms as within literature and child rearing, various leaders and thinkers shape different eras.

Yet, religious institutions remain. They wax and wane, seem to disappear for while but then return, more influential than ever.

The Renaissance swept away medieval life, making irrelevant for Europeans much of the daily concern with religion. Yet it was followed by the Reformation, imperfect and harmful in some of its birth pangs, yet refocusing ordinary people on the spiritual journey.

Then the enlightenment flourished, opening up inquiry and scientific exploration. It broke up much of the average person’s literal interpretation of Christian scriptures. It was followed, however, by Christian renewal, in which the Christian message was carried to every non-European corner of the earth.

World wide bloodletting, begun by so-called Christian nations, led to a turning away from organized religion. Now it seems moribund in many developed nations, but it flames anew in non-European settings.

Sojourners published several “Letters to the American church from Christians around the World.” (August 2019) Wrote Ismael Moreno, a Jesuit social activist in Honduras:

“We have faith that we will begin to see small lights shining all over the United States. They will be lights lit from the margins to confront the powerful, and they will illuminate the community that believes and hopes. Not the lights of shopping centers or merchants, but the lights of communities that embrace one another in tenderness.”