Posted on 04/12/2005 4:43:34 PM PDT by Frank Sheed
The Next Christianity PHILIP JENKINS
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In looking back over the enormous changes wrought by the twentieth century, Western observers may have missed the most dramatic revolution of all. While secular movements like communism, feminism, and environmentalism have gotten the lion's share of our attention, the explosive southward expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has barely registered on Western consciousness. Nor has the globalization of Christianity — and the enormous religious, political, and social consequences it portends — been properly understood.
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(Excerpt) Read more at catholiceducation.org ...
--Frank
I don't find the history cited here sound enough to finish the article.
"I don't find the history cited here sound enough to finish the article."
Sure have that RIGHT!
Not worth reading.
Excellent! Thank you for posting this.
Any strength of a 'reformation' movement was quelled by JPII's funeral. The Cardinals themselves, admittedly, were taken by surprise by the worlwide reaction to this pope. They have realized that the next pope, though not a carbon copy, must pick up where he left off. It is simply a matter of time before the liberal element of the church dies off and is replaced by the youth who have embraced the more traditional aspects of the Catholic faith.
Kiss the Bernardin and Jadot 'boys' good bye!
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Agree with the sentiment 100 per cent, but No to kissing. :) I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot barge pole.
Today across the global South a rising religious fervor is coinciding with declining autonomy for nation-states, making useful an analogy with the medieval concept of Christendom — the Res Publica Christiana — as an overarching source of unity and a focus of loyalty transcending mere kingdoms or empires. Kingdoms might last for only a century or two before being supplanted by new states or dynasties, but rational people knew that Christendom simply endured. The laws of individual nations lasted only as long as the nations themselves; Christendom offered a higher set of standards and mores that could claim to be universal. Christendom was a primary cultural reference, and it may well re-emerge as such in the Christian South — as a new transnational order in which political, social, and personal identities are defined chiefly by religious loyalties.
The Episcopalian Jenkins makes an interesting observation in that.
Fascinating article. I bookmarked it and forwarded it to a few friends.
For thirty years Northern liberals have dreamed of a Third Vatican Council to complete the revolution launched by Pope John XXIII — one that would usher in a new age of ecclesiastical democracy and lay empowerment. It would be a bitter irony for the liberals if the council were convened but turned out to be a conservative, Southern-dominated affair that imposed moral and theological litmus tests intolerable to North Americans and Europeans — if, in other words, it tried to implement not a new Reformation but a new Counter-Reformation. (In that sense we would be witnessing not a new Wittenberg but, rather, a new Council of Trent — that is, a strongly traditional gathering that would restate the Church's older ideology and attempt to set it in stone for all future ages.) If a future Southern Pope struggled to impose a new vision of orthodoxy on America's Catholic bishops, universities, and seminaries, the result could well be an actual rather than a de facto schism.Excellent insights again. Hats off to Jenkins for these observations. I would go on to say that it is not at all far-fetched to imagine a Global South Pope - conservative, etc...- eventually leading to an anti-pope who serves the interests of the Elites that govern the EU et al.The experience of the world's Anglicans and Episcopalians may foretell the direction of conflicts within the Roman Catholic Church. In the Anglican Communion, which is also torn by a global cultural conflict over issues of gender and sexuality, orthodox Southerners seek to re-evangelize a Euro-American world that they view as coming close to open heresy. This uncannily recalls the situation in sixteenth-century Europe, in which Counter-Reformation Catholics sent Jesuits and missionary priests to reconvert those regions that had fallen into Protestantism.
p i n g
Indeed!
How do you think this idea compares/contrasts to our Founding Fathers efforts to create a democracy that answered to a higher law- liberty/freedom as rights from God rather than man?
(I probably didn't word that very well)
Please, Lord, let it be so.
Thanks for the ping. We'll just have to trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit for our Cardinals and ourselves.
Careful, they might try to kiss back.
"The Cardinals themselves, admittedly, were taken by surprise by the worldwide reaction to this pope."
How in particular do we know this? What I mean is, do we really know that they were "taken by surprise"? I was wondering what it was you had in mind that might lead one to believe this is the case, that this is their true reaction, and more or less across the board.
"They have realized that the next pope, though not a carbon copy, must pick up where he left off."
Same querry here. What leads you to believe they that have realized this?
In particular though, just out of curiosity, I'm wondering where the Pope "left off", as you put it, and where we aas a Church might be heading from that point.
"It is simply a matter of time before the liberal element of the church dies off and is replaced by the youth who have embraced the more traditional aspects of the Catholic faith."
Can you perhaps point out these youth?
I hear this a theory quite a bit, this one about the libs dying off, and was hoping you might be able to enlighten me on a point or two.
If what you describe as the liberal element dies off, as you describe it, can we necessarily assume that at that the point in which we are relieved of them by their absence, that things will naturally right themselves? For instance, could not one make the argument that efforts of this liberal element may have actually poisoned the incoming ranks and the new recruits in some way or another, such that the young may carry on the work of these liberals long after they are dead and buried? Can we assume such a clean break in liberal decline simply because of their passing?
You have a theory, but I'm not convinced. See, I would be more inclined to believe that these liberals would have spread their poison to the younger generation, who, in turn, would pick up where they had left off, and further the efforts of their deceased elders. This seems the more obvious progression of things.
This would seem the more the way things are, so to speak. The truth, that is.
According to the Vatican Communications Director (? - not sure of her title), this was their reaction. She appears nightly as a guest of Raymond Arroyo who is hosting a new program Inside The Vatican on EWTN. She made these comments last Friday after the funeral.
The Cardinal's reactions were made before they began their Media silence. Consider the turnout of presidents and potentates. First US President to attend a papal funeral - and with 2 former US Presidents, the Presidents of Israel, Iran and Iraq - who shook hands during the Sign of Peace (check the news reports). The reaction extended to other parts of the world. North Korean catholics 'televised' at a memorial mass for the pope; AlJazeera broadcasting the pope's funeral live throughout the Middle East .... you get the picture.
Joan (that's her first name) commented on the Cardinals' reactions to leaders of other faiths who came to Rome for the pope's funeral (without precedent) to those that signed Memorial Registries around the world. According to her, they grasped the extent to which this pope's message had spread and realize that this must continue with the next pontiff.
They also marveled at the 3 million + pilgrims that flocked to Rome and stood in line for up to 24 hours to view the pope. These included people who flew, at great personal expense, to Rome for a 1 minute final glimpse, to pay their last respects. The Cardinals realized that this pope's 'message' is one that was embraced and must continue. He never wavered on his pro-life message; he lived it.
Can you perhaps point out these youth?
In case you missed this thread, here is one example of how youth have responded - A small, sturdy band of 'John Paul priests'(JPII legacy of conservative priests) . EWTN has interviewed many priests over the past few days, who all claim to have been drawn to JPII's message "Follow me". Perhaps you should watch some of the programs on EWTN to better understand just how far that message extended and the increasing enrollment of "JPII" priests in the seminaries.
I would be more inclined to believe that these liberals would have spread their poison to the younger generation, who, in turn, would pick up where they had left off, and further the efforts of their deceased elders.
There was another thread recently, on this topic. If you do some research on just the US seminaries, you will discover that in those diocese run by the more liberal bishops, vocations have trickled off whereas the dioceses run by those bishops who adhere to a more traditional formation, the seminaries are full.
This seems the more obvious progression of things.
It would be IF they could attract young men to their formation programs. It's not happening. In fact, one NY seminary that once taught more 'progressive' courses, has turned completely around. Now the seminarians are once again returning.
You obviously have very little faith or are a cynic. The Holy Spirit guides and protects the Catholic Church. What happened in the 70's and 80's is long over. The new generation of priests and seminarians hold fast to the truths and are bringing back the flock. To their ranks, add the number of former protestant clergy who have converted, and are actively at work in various dioceses throughout the US, evangelizing back the catholics who strayed.
That is the normal progression, if you trust and believe in what our Lord promised.
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