Posted on 09/20/2002 7:08:12 AM PDT by TomSmedley
Philip Jenkins, the author of "The Next Christianity" in the October Atlantic, argues that most Americans and Europeans are blind to Christianity's real future
In the past year, coverage of religious issues has focused tightly on two themes—the present and future dangers of Islamic fundamentalism, and the scandal in the American Catholic Church. There's an assumption that Christianity's worldwide influence is waning, as Islam's influence—especially in the political sphere—grows. And there's a belief that if Catholicism is to remain a healthy, vibrant religion, it must adjust itself to "modern" mores by revisiting its policies on celibacy, women's roles in the Church, and the amount of influence accorded to the laity. But Philip Jenkins, a scholar of history and religion at Pennsylvania State University, believes that on these issues the American public can't see the forest for the trees. In his article in the October Atlantic, "The Next Christianity," (and in his recent book, The Next Christendom), Jenkins argues that Americans are all but unaware of what is one of the most important shifts of the twentieth century—the explosive growth of Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Christianity practiced in Africa, Latin America, and Asia tends to be much more rigidly conservative and traditional than that of the North, and its practitioners are often guided by a strong belief in the power of the supernatural to directly shape their lives.
As Jenkins writes,
The most successful Southern churches preach a deep personal faith, communal orthodoxy, mysticism, and puritanism, all founded on obedience to spiritual authority.... Whereas Americans imagine a Church freed from hierarchy, superstition, and dogma, Southerners look back to one filled with spiritual power and able to exorcise the demonic forces that cause sickness and poverty.
The places where Christianity is spreading and mutating are also places where the population levels are rising quickly—and, if Jenkins's predictions hold true—will continue to rise throughout the next century. The center of gravity of the Christian world has shifted from Europe and the United States to the Southern Hemisphere and, Jenkins believes, it will never shift back. So when American Catholics, for instance, talk about the necessity and the inevitability of reforms (reforms that Southern Catholics would most likely not condone), they do so without fully realizing that their views on the subject are becoming increasingly irrelevant, because the demographic future of their Church lies elsewhere.
That demographic future puts Christianity on a collision course with Islam. Though there will continue to be more Christians in the world than Muslims, they will be jostling for converts in the same places, and Jenkins forsees that several countries "might be brought to ruin by the clash of jihad and crusade." The Northern world is unlikely to be the instigator of future crusades. But it seems inevitable that both Europe and the United States will be shaken by the reverberations of growth and conflict in the new Christian world.
I spoke with Jenkins recently by phone.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I question first whether that is consistent with Christ's teachings, and second whether it would be at all availing in the light of prophecy (which BTW is quite valid and will come to pass no matter how unattractive we as individuals may find its particulars).
Better IMHO to couch the coming struggle in terms of our National interest and enlist the support of all Americans of good will be they Christians, or not.
And exactly how does fatalistic doom-mongering bring glory to the conquering Eternal King?
Speaking as the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants who visited that lovely country in 1992 -- this is very good news. Thank you.
It says there are more Catholics in the world than there are Moslems.
And that India and China have more Christians than are generally admitted to by the authorities.
And that there is danger of sectarian strife between conservative Catholics and Pentecostals in South America, but less so in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere.
America, in this account, maintains its Christianity in no small part via Hispanic immigration of Catholics and Pentecostals.
I read somewhere that the majority of Hispanic Americans are protestants. The independent / loosely attached charismatic churches seem to be the fastest growing demographic here in the States. Like home schooling, there's a lot of stuff going on "under the radar" of the cultural elites -- a lot of encouraging stuff!
wish I could cite the book which indicated that immigrants to America are disproporitonately likely to be Christian, and if Christian, disproprotionately likely to be Protestant, than their country of origin.
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