No one would doubt that Christianity in 'the West' is facing significant challenges in the face of what appears to be inexorable decline in numbers, respect and impact. It is tempting to buy into an analysis that sees decline as an inevitable consequence of late modernity but I think there have been enough studies by now to show that this assumption is deeply flawed (and probably polemical). In brief, societies like ours in the UK are not getting less religious, but their religious profile is changing radically. And there are increasing numbers of people who self-define as 'spiritual' and many aspects of those spiritualities are a close fit with traditional religious categories. Even among those who do not use this language, there can be expressions of the value of life and understandings of the world shaped by environmental, political or artistic consciousness that are also very close to traditional religious understandings.
What has happened, though, is that many traditional expressions of Christian faith have ceased to be the first port of call for those who seek meaning or spiritual growth. In fact, they often seem to be the last place anyone would go to find the tools and insights needed to navigate the complexities of life. I think there are many understandable reasons why this should have happened in our particular corner of the world (NB this is NOT a universal phenomenon, nor should it be assumed to be the way the rest of the world will go (intellectual imperialism is not dead...)). These reasons relate both to the changing nature of authority and power in society and to the intellectual trajectories that have defined Western moderntiy for at least the last 250 years. But I don't propose to say anything more about these for now because I am more concerned to establish what kind of Christian faith stands a chance in this environment.
Two words come to mind in that respect: engagement and rootedness. Many churches of both traditional and contemporary styles seem to me to be retreating into themselves, living in a self-contained world where the main concerns are internal ones. If I am right that there are many people 'out there' who are fellow travellers seeking truth, meaning and transformation, then we in the church should be doing all we can to talk to them so that we may share a common journey and see where it takes us all. If we are to do that, we need to have a deep sense of who we are, what we are about and where we have come from. It seems to me that those in the front line of church engagement with the wider world need to be bilingual, speaking the language of the best contemporary explorations and knowing the ancient traditions of spiritual theology inside out. These traditions are not merely intellectual, they are ways of life, transformative patterns that run through everything that we are and do. We need to be equally serious about both of these sets of languages if we are to continue to have anything to offer when people ask the biggest questions of all.
You are absolutely right but how do we learn "the language of the best contemporary explorations"?
Posted by: Jennifer E | 03/08/2014 at 09:33 PM