It is fair to say that institutional religion is in rapid decline in the west. In my estimation this decline is attributable to several things: The global financial crisis of 2007 and declining birth rates. The invention of iPhones and social media where we replace social interaction with staring into our phones.
I wholeheartedly agree with your reading of the tea leaves Micheal and would argue much of what you anticipate is already unfolding. What stood out as missing from your list of reasons however is the role evangelicals have played in causing this decline. It is important to recognise the environmental factors that have led to this, but shouldn’t we be facing the music for how the witness of the church (us) has caused significant harm by failing to project the image of a truly unconditionally loving God available to all mankind? I am not hating on the church here but so often I catch myself looking for external reasons for why people are not accepting the hope of Jesus when I need to be looking at how horribly I have mirrored his image myself. Grace and peace.
Dear Michael Fascinating but there is more available! Have you heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's idea of Non- religious Christianity? Often misunderstood but profound and prophetic in 1943. I wrote my PhD on the topic and you are pretty much on the same trail. Briefly Bonhoeffer saw that Karl Barth had correctly defined "religion" as the human attempt to placate God and/or do without Him. Bonhoeffer went much further and saw human religiousness as at best the clothing of Christianity varying in time and culture. He said we should focus more on Jesus and ask: "Who is Christ for us, today?" His answer was that Jesus was best seen as the man for others so His church is only the church when it lives for others. Bonhoeffer rejected Bultmann's liberalism entirely and insisted that "virgin birth, miracles, resurrection are the thing ( the gospel) itself"
And much much more if you want... Was Nazism a religion as you describes? What about the personality cults around Stalin and Mao? .....have you considered that all the parodies of Christianity also diminish us in the West? Neville Eckersley
I wholeheartedly agree with your reading of the tea leaves Micheal and would argue much of what you anticipate is already unfolding. What stood out as missing from your list of reasons however is the role evangelicals have played in causing this decline. It is important to recognise the environmental factors that have led to this, but shouldn’t we be facing the music for how the witness of the church (us) has caused significant harm by failing to project the image of a truly unconditionally loving God available to all mankind? I am not hating on the church here but so often I catch myself looking for external reasons for why people are not accepting the hope of Jesus when I need to be looking at how horribly I have mirrored his image myself. Grace and peace.
Dear Michael Fascinating but there is more available! Have you heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's idea of Non- religious Christianity? Often misunderstood but profound and prophetic in 1943. I wrote my PhD on the topic and you are pretty much on the same trail. Briefly Bonhoeffer saw that Karl Barth had correctly defined "religion" as the human attempt to placate God and/or do without Him. Bonhoeffer went much further and saw human religiousness as at best the clothing of Christianity varying in time and culture. He said we should focus more on Jesus and ask: "Who is Christ for us, today?" His answer was that Jesus was best seen as the man for others so His church is only the church when it lives for others. Bonhoeffer rejected Bultmann's liberalism entirely and insisted that "virgin birth, miracles, resurrection are the thing ( the gospel) itself"
And much much more if you want... Was Nazism a religion as you describes? What about the personality cults around Stalin and Mao? .....have you considered that all the parodies of Christianity also diminish us in the West? Neville Eckersley
Indeed, it’s the dawn of a new religious age in the West.