Posted on 09/11/2018 8:13:39 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
André Malraux predicted that the 21st century would be religious, or it would not be at all. Sociologists note that, even in secularized societies, people thirst for things spiritual. Despite the aforementioned social and cultural visibility of Protestantism in Northern Europe, however, the Lutheran and Anglican Churches there are dying... In Sweden, 4 percent of Lutherans attend services regularly, while the corresponding figures in Norway and Finland are below 2 percent.
By contrast, the Catholic Church is experiencing a mini-renaissance in Northern Europe. There are currently more practicing Catholics than Anglicans in Britain. In Scandinavia, there are about 600,000 Catholics, roughly 3 percent of the region's population (a proportion similar to that of Catholics in Asia). Certainly, part of this has to do with immigration. Since the European Union expanded to include less prosperous former East Bloc states in 2004, Scandinavia and the British Isles have been deluged by immigrants from the Catholic nations of Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania.
While Mass is celebrated in Polish or Serbo-Croatian across Northern Europe, the region's indigenous population is also being drawn to the Catholic Church. In the past decade, the number of British seminarians has grown fourfold. This cannot be explained by immigration (young Polish immigrants who enter seminary usually go home) or by short bursts of enthusiasm, such as that after Pope Benedict XVI's visit in 2010, as this upward tendency has been ongoing for ten years.
Currently, Scandinavia is one of the most vocations-rich regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The Church has 103,000 members in Sweden and 17 seminarians.
Meanwhile, one of Scandinavia's best-known Christian leaders — charismatic pastor Ulf Ekman — recently converted to Catholicism along with his wife.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholiceducation.org ...
If you want to move the goal posts from the Inquisition to "Catholics in Spain" then I can almost assure you that the number of people executed far exceeds 32k. Pope Frankie will would no doubt applaud your aversion to the death penalty.
In the wider context of European affairs of the perios, with the standard practices of torture and general brutality by all parties, Protestants and Catholics alike, the 30 Years War in which 8 million on all sides died, in which entire populations in the new world were enslaved...To harp on Civil and Ecclesiastic proceedings in Spain which varied not in theleas from similar proceedings in other countries, is transparently disingenuous.
Thank-God for this miracle!
I'll let the competing scholars battle it out. Brittanica has no axe to grind that I can see.
In the wider context of European affairs of the perios, with the standard practices of torture and general brutality by all parties, Protestants and Catholics alike, the 30 Years War in which 8 million on all sides died, in which entire populations in the new world were enslaved...To harp on Civil and Ecclesiastic proceedings in Spain which varied not in theleas from similar proceedings in other countries, is transparently disingenuous.
But I never made that point. You are not a mindreader, so please do not label me as disingenuous. I am not.
A subject of discussion cannot be divorced from it’s historical context. In the context of the subject matter being discussed your comment remains entirely disingenuous.
You were not labeled disingenuous, your comments were.
Which is seen as an opinion of the poster.
That is acceptable in the Religion Forum on open threads.
Vigorous debate is common on open threads.
Thank you for being a fair forum official.
Guidelines concerning Language on the Religion Forum:Your post will be removed.Any Religion Forum post which contains potty language - or references to potty language - will be pulled as soon as I see it. If you are new to the Religion Forum and wonder where your post went, it may well be that you used a word like...(redacted the rest, click on my name at the bottom of this post to see the whole sentence)
If you need to see the post again to reword it, let me know by Freepmail and I'll send it to you.
See my post #29.
You quoted a Religion Forum guideline violation so your post will be removed.
Thank you for the encouragement.
Christianity doesn't need to have historical or cultural ties to an area to grow. If that were the case Christianity would not be able to grow anywhere other than the Eastern Med or parts of Europe.
Scripture does not change.....however Roman Catholic "tradition" has, does and will change again.
Have you built a cathedral or composed a symphony like Mozart’s rendition of Ave Verum Corpus lately? Even Evangelicals have something to glean from Catholicism’s contributions to uplift the human spirit and beautify culture.
No. And nor do I have to.
A great number of the very pretty buildings in Europe are vacant or just tourist attractions.
Somehow the Gospel was able to be spread in the Roman Empire without aid of all of Roman Catholicism's "contributions".
Beauty glorifies God and comes from God and points us to God. Art has its place. Europe would not be ‘Europe’ without it. I would be heartbroken if it just became another strip-mall ridden, uninspired place with an NFL game blaring in the background. Don’t get me wrong: ESPN and WalMarts have their place.
But let’s not be dismissive of Notre Dame or Viennese waltzes.
I agree. And His Creation points to Him in all aspects. It's not just limited to one area on the planet.
Art has its place. Europe would not be ‘Europe’ without it.
A lot of places have art that is just a beautiful as what is in Europe.
I would be heartbroken if it just became another strip-mall ridden, uninspired place with an NFL game blaring in the background. Don’t get me wrong: ESPN and WalMarts have their place.
There are some places in Europe turning into that.
But let’s not be dismissive of Notre Dame or Viennese waltzes.
I've been to Notre Dame. IIRC there was a Mass occurring but tourists were allowed to enter.
Which does nothing towards the salvation of souls.
Jesus told us to go and make disciples.
He was not into ostentatiousness.
Mark 13:1-2 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
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