THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY (PART 1)

Futurology is a tricky business, especially when it deals with religion. Even so, theologians, sociologists, economists, political scientists and occasionally historians attempt to divine the future. Some insight into it can be derived by looking at Christian history, the present world situation and current issues which will affect the future of faith. From this, then, perhaps some indication of what Christianity will be like in the near future can be gained.

The story of Christianity has always featured unexpected resurrections. Eras of corruption give away to eras of reform; sinners and cynics cede the floor to a rush of idealists and saints; political and intellectual challenges emerge and then gradually surmounted. There is no single form of Christian civilization, in the same sense that there is no stereotypical Christian life. Across two millennium, the faith has found ways to make itself at home in the Roman Court and the medieval monastery, the Renaissance city and the South African suburb alike.

In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton describes what he calls the "five deaths of the faith" - the moments in Western history when Christianity seemed doomed to either perish entirely or else fade to the margins of a post - Christian civilization. It would be natural for faith to decline and fall with the Roman Empire, or to disappear gradually after the armies of Islam conquered its ancient heartland in the Near East and North Africa was conquered by the armies of Islam. It would have been predictable if Christianity had dissolved along with feudalism when the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, or if it had vanished with the ancient regimes of Europe amid the turmoil of the revolutions of the ages. In the same tone, it would have been completely understandable if the faith had continually phased away during the long 19th century, when it was dismissed by Marx, challenged by Darwin, denounced by Nietzsche, and explained away by Freud. Pure poetry in motion, however, in each of these cases, an age of crisis was swiftly followed by an era of renewal, in which forces threatening the faith either receded or were discredited and Christianity itself revived. It is not surprising, then, that time and again, Chesterton noted, "the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs." But each time, "it was the dog that died". Certainly, it would be heresy to assume that a Christian Renaissance is inevitable. Christianity's resilience hasn't prevented particular Christian worlds from decaying. In response, I have the obligation to mention that "hope is every believer's obligation". "For us, there is only one trying, the rest is not our business", T.S. Eliot wrote. The deeper trends that might inspire a Christian renaissance are beyond any believer's control. But the kind of faith that should trigger such renaissance can, surely, be lived out Christian by Christian, congregation by congregation, day by day, without regard to whether it succeeds in changing the World way of religion as a whole. What would or should such a renewed Christianity look like?

My hope and target is to persuade even the most skeptical reader that traditional Christian faith might have more to offer than either its flawed defenders or its fashionable enemies would lead one to believe. Ross Douthat wrote, "But neither religions nor cultures can live on instrumentality alone. To make any difference in our common life, Christianity must be lived - not as a means to social cohesion or national renewal, but as an end unto itself". Anyone who seeks a more perfect union should begin by seeking the perfection of their own soul. Anyone who would save their country should first look to save themselves. "Seek you first the Kingdom of God, and all of these things will be added to you".(Mathew 6:33) In my view, I really believe that Christianity will contribute to the emergence of new consensus of common-held values that will make a difference in the future of humanity. It is common knowledge that modern society is losing more and more confidence in their governments. The only major point that governments still exercise any kind of leadership is in the area of national defense , or what others call the arms race. While millions of people starve in some part of the world, billions of dollars are spent on nuclear weapons and conventional arms in another. Most alarming, the military build-up and the possibility of a nuclear holocaust have become so familiar to many people that they now seem to dismiss them as threats to human existence. The intellectual foundation for this worldwide political, economic and social drift is a generation cut-off from its roots, isolated from its past and from its future. In fact, they are pathologically preoccupied with self. The threat of atomic disaster, ecological problems and the shrinking of resources all tend to concentrate the attention on the present. In fact, I think that there is little serious historical and theological thinking being done about the future.

(End of part 1)