The Demise of Christendom

Here is another post of some of the writing I have done in conjunction with my DMin course. This section is on the characteristics of the Christendom system that has been set up in Western culture - which most of the culture is now rejecting. I trust it is interesting reading.


It is because there is such a significant shift in our culture that the church has become the least likely option for those seeking an “artistic, politically subversive, activist community of mystical faith" - and the rejection of middle-class American values in some ways is also a rejection of Christianity, the sponsor of those values. The mode of operation of much the Church is still rooted in an assumption of “culture Protestantism” – in other words, still rooted in the Christendom paradigm.

Christendom is the term used (in many instances negatively) to describe the church-influenced culture that has dominated European society for the last Millennium. Its roots go back to the Edict of Milan in CE 313, where Christianity moved from being a marginalized, subversive and persecuted movement, secretly meeting in houses and catacombs, to being the favored religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity became the metanarrative of Western culture blurring the lines between the church and the state to the point where, in some countries, the king (or queen) was, and still is, the head of the church.

The head of state was often the one who determined what type of church there would be, or if there even was to be a church. You became a Christian by birth rather than choice, and to be a good citizen was to be a good Christian (and vice versa). Rodney Clapp refers to this as “Constantinianism” and a good summary of his thesis is this quote: “The question is no longer ”How can we survive and remain faithful Christians under Caesar?” but now becomes “How can we adjust the church’s expectations so that Caesar can consider himself a faithful Christian?””

Stuart Murray provides an excellent summary of the major shifts that occurred in the centuries after Constantine imposed Christian rule on the Roman Empire.

• The adoption of Christianity as the official religion of a city, state or empire
• The movement of the church from the margins of society to its center
• The creation and progressive development of a Christian culture of civilization
• The assumption that all citizens (except for the Jews) were Christian by birth
• The development of the corpus Chirstianum, where there was no freedom of religion and where political power was regarded as divinely authenticated
• Infant baptism as the symbol of obligatory incorporation into this Christian society
• Sunday as an official day of rest and obligatory church attendance, with penalties for noncompliance
• The definition of orthodoxy as the common belief shared by all which was determined by powerful church leaders supported by the state
• The imposition of a supposedly Christian morality on the entire society (although normally Old Testament moral standards were applied)
• A hierarchical ecclesiastical system, based on a diocesan and parish arrangement which was analogous to the state hierarchy and was buttressed by state support
• The construction of massive and ornate church buildings and the formation of huge congregations
• A generic distinction between clergy and laity, and the relegation of the laity to a largely passive role
• The increased wealth of the church and the imposition of obligatory tithes to fund this system
• The defense of Christianity by legal sanctions to restrain heresy immorality and schism
• The division of the globe into Christendom or heathendom and the waging of war in the name of Christ and the church
• The use of political and military force to impose the Christian faith
• The use of the Old Testament rather than the New to support and justify many of these changes

Even though many of these changes may have been well intentioned, we see how the Christendom model has created a system that makes it difficult to produce radical followers of Jesus. To be very simplistic, the Christendom goal in North America has been to establish a nation that is lead by a godly person and that has laws reflecting the Old Testament moral code, with morality legislated so that the behavior of the citizens is controlled. The spiritual leaders sponsor the civil leaders (or elect one of their own) so that the nation will create an environment favorable to their purposes. The model citizens of this society are outwardly obedient and outwardly observant – inner conviction was a matter of personal choice.

Those who are unable to comply are marginalized to the fringes of society. It devalues the powerless. It produces Pharisees and outcasts. It sounds very much like the system in which we find ourselves in North America. It sounds like the system from which Jesus came to deliver us. Tony Campolo says it this way: “If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over the airwaves of North America.”

Meandering Again

A few things I got a hoot out of - either funny or interesting.

The first is someone's MSN log on name: "4 out of 5 dentists agree that 1 dentist will always disagree with the other 4 "

The second is on the Blogger Dashboard and it is the "To Do List" blog. There are some great ones including "things to do before I die" (pictured below) the "before getting pregnant" list (July 06), the "perfect husband" list (july 06) and the "stuff to do when I'm old" list (definitely tongue in cheek). Click on the picture to enlarge.



The third one is from my son's blog where he asked people on MSN to "say something inspirational" - it's called Surprise Me!

The fourth is a link from my son's blog as well to illegal signs in Toronto. Check it out here.

Another piece of interesting flotsam. If you think you have a hard time finding a parking spot in North America try Europe. Check it out here.

The "Other"

I am continuing to post some of the writing I have done in conjunction with my DMin course. This section is about postmodernity and metanaratives. [A metanarative is story that explains all the elements of life with one overarching thesis or paradigm. All the world religions presuppose a metanarative. Christianity's metanarative has been at times been summed up with John 3:16.] Postmodernity will get lots of press as my paper continues. Enjoy.


We are facing a changing view of life itself that challenges many of the things that have been part of the understanding of society for centuries. We live in a postmodern world, where people “embrace pluralism and place value in the diversity of worldviews and religions that characterizes contemporary society.” Also, Postmodernity certainly influences Christianity, and may in some ways actually be interpreted as a reaction to Christendom.

Among numerous definitions of Postmodernity, Paul Lakeland provides a succinct description. The basic tenets of Postmodernity are:

1. No standpoint is neutral or above suspicion. All are rhetorical.
2. Metanarratives erase otherness by including the other within “my” metanarrative, thereby removing its otherness. Therefore all metanarratives are suspect.
3. The task of understanding or interpreting society, if attempted at all, must be conducted through piecemeal, tactical, pragmatic, and tentative means.
4. The task of changing society if attempted at all, must be conducted through grassroots, localized (though sometimes networked) tactical, pragmatic and incremental means. The social activist must be committed to dialogue and consensus building.
5. Postmodernity contains within it elements both of the emancipatory and the demonic. No theoretical grid is available that will easily allow the discernment of which elements are which, though the kinds of totalizing impulses that would reject points 1-4 provide important hints.

One of the predominant characteristics of Postmodernity, according to Lakeland, is the explosion of communication technology that has, for the first time in history, created a world culture. This world culture allows us to be in contact with many divergent viewpoints and has contributed to a pluralism that challenges Christianity’s exclusive claims – at least in the public forum. It has also contributed to the “small world” phenomenon whereby we are much more closely connected to every other person upon the earth.

Similarly, communication technologies shift how our society views people in leadership positions. With instant and mass communication leaders are now under much closer scrutiny than ever before. This concept of globalization (or a global spirit) will continue to present challenges to the understanding of the exclusive claims of Christianity.

Also a world culture creates scrutiny of metanarratives. One of the main problems with metanarratives, whether or not they are consciously adapted or unconsciously reflected, is that they shape a singular view of the world and its peoples. It is only when the metanarrative is abandoned that voice can be given to people who are marginalized – who are defined as the “Other.”

Lakeland gives this example: “… the privileged citizens of any developed Western nation, and that of course meant a white male, and probably a Protestant, did not have to confront the Other … Women, slaves, native peoples, and homosexuals were of course not invisible, but were successfully deproblematized, incorporated into a monological schema of untroubled serenity. So, while they were undoubtedly “others,” their status as “Other” was unrecognized.” Therefore in a postmodern world, the minimized other is genuinely accorded the status of “Other” and is to be heard. This shakes some of our Evangelical certainty and must be considered as we examine the church’s sensitivity to existing paradigms of power, exclusiveness and inclusiveness, the role of laity, women, children, language and other religious systems.

In the midst of the challenges to Christianity, interest in spirituality in general and more specifically Jesus, is actually increasing. The popularity of a postmodern Jesus is the result of the perception that “he’s a pluralist, he welcomes outsiders. He welcomes women, he is against organized religion, he’s for economic justice. Jesus comes dressed up in the clothes of our own culture.”

Evidence of this interest in spirituality finds expression in New Age events like psychic fairs or like the Burning Man Festival , and in movies like David Fincher’s Fight Club (based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk). In describing the attraction of the movie, Frost and Hirsch say: “Theirs is a community of male empowerment with a strongly anti-consumerist sentiment. Like the Burning Man festival, it is also about belonging, liberation, rebellion and the rejection of middle-class American values.

There is an untamed energy about Fight Club. It has a dissident wildness about it … both are prime examples of the desperate yearning that has been unleashed in the Western world … (raising) within the West many expectations for an experiential, activist form of religious, mystical experience. The Christian church has not met these expectations.” Even though Jesus may be attractive, the Church is seen as the LEAST likely option for those seeking an “artistic, politically subversive, activist community of mystical faith.”

Forgiveness

I've mentioned and quoted Fred Peatross before and given links to his blog - which unfortunately he has now discontinued. However, he continues to send me an email "devotional" every once in a while and for the most part they are very good. I would like to give a link to these posts because they must exist somewhere in cyberspace but until I find them you can find some of his stuff here on hillschurch. (If someone has a link for him please forward it to me in the comments.)

His message is about the difficulty of forgiveness. I make a few comments at the end. Here is his email post.

Forgiving for Faulty People

Twenty-three years ago Pope John Paul walked into a cell in a Roman prison and forgave the man who tried to kill him. But the Pope is a professional forgiver which, on the surface, appears easier for such a high placed professional to forgive when he knows ahead of time that the whole world will be watching. It is much harder for an ordinary person, whom nobody is watching, to forgive and forget.

Never underestimate the demands that forgiving puts on the average person's modest power to love. Some skeptics, when they heard Jesus forgive people, challenged: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Novelist Charles William said that forgiving is really a game-we can only play at it, essentially we cannot do it.

We talk a good forgiving line as long as somebody else needs to do it, but few of us have the heart for it while we are dangling from one end of a bond broken by somebody else's cruelty. Yet people do forgive and they do heal themselves of their pain. But no one seems to be born with much talent for forgiving. It is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk. We learn from scratch, and learning almost always runs against the grain.

The truth is we forgive best when we go at it in bits and pieces, and for specific acts. We bog down when we try to forgive people in a grand manner, because wholesale forgiving is almost always fake. Forgiving anything at all is a minor miracle; forgiving carte blanche is silly. Nobody can do it. Except God.

My Comments:
I would agree that forgiving is difficult. I would also agree that we go at it in bits and pieces. But I think forgiveness is a bit like the grief process that we go through when someone close to us dies. Because the truth is that we often have lost a friend or family member with the death kiss of betrayal. The initial offense or betrayal is like the funeral - you need to go through this process of accepting that you've been offended or betrayed and deal with it - acknowledging it, perhaps sharing it, and then putting it to rest. In that way forgiveness is an event - in Fred's terms "forgiving carte blanche" However, like grief, memories of the event spring up and need to be dealt with on a daily basis. These memories each need to be dealt with by another act of forgiveness. They become more infrequent with time but nonetheless still need to be dealt with and forgiven. The deeper the betrayal the longer the forgiving needs to go on.

Sometime we are tricked into thinking that we haven't really forgiven the other person when one of these memories is triggered by an event. Sometimes we are surprised and dismayed by the depth of feeling that is exposed by these memories and think "How could I still feel like this if I really forgave?". But the truth is that we did forgive - we just need to keep forgiving. That's the tough part. To quote Eugene Peterson: "It's a long obedience in the same direction." Ultimately we really can't do it without God.

The End of the World As We Know It

As many of you know I am in the process of studying for a DMin. The title to this post is the title of my first paper. I thought I would include a bit of the paper in a few posts. I actually posted the introduction here a few months ago. A lot of the paper is a collection of ideas and quotes from other sources. I will try to cite the major contributors as I go along. Anything in [square brackets] is stuff that would normally go into footnotes. Sorry if that makes it too confusing but I tend to like to include more information rather than less.

The world is changing. It really is the end of the world as we know it (and we don’t feel fine – most of the churched world has serious misgivings). [With apologies to band REM, who wrote the apocalyptic song with the title: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine).”] The consistent message of many current authors on the state of the church today is that Christendom is over and has been for quite some time. The church must either adapt to the changing culture or die. Parts of the traditional church may already be dead.

“It is quite possible that in the early part of the third millennium only the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, on the one hand, and evangelical Protestantism, on the other, will survive as ecclesial communities. What used to be called the Protestant mainline churches are in acute danger of disappearing. I expect they will disappear if they continue neither to resist the spirit of a progressively secularist culture, nor to try to transform it.” [Wolfhart Pannenberg. “Christianity and the West: Ambiguous Past, Uncertain Future.” First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, 48, no. 4 (1994): 22. These comments were made more than a decade ago and in many ways still ring true. However, there are many indicators of new life within some streams of the traditional mainline churches. There is also a renewed interest, especially among the emerging generation, in the historic liturgy typically found in more “high church” traditions.]

The “culture Protestantism” of the Western world that existed in one way or another since the Reformation, has been rejected, or perhaps ignored, arguably ever since the first World War.

Robert Jenson [“The Hidden and Triune God.” International Journal of Systematic Theology. (2000) 2, no. 1: 5] suggests that the church “is in the midst of divorce proceedings from the culture.” This divorce between the church and culture is not a new phenomenon. Many are drawing historical parallels between the pre-Constantinian and postmodern ages, where religious options abound, and there is a distinct separation of church and culture (state). As Rodney Clapp has stated: “Western Civilization is no longer content with a single religious sponsor.”

The core of this Christendom thinking is that much of Christianity still expects to be the chief sponsor of Western culture. Just as Nike sponsors Tiger Woods to piggyback on his success in order to dominate the golf equipment business, Christianity has sponsored Western culture to piggyback on its power and influence so as to dominate the religious worldview and win more converts. However, today’s church must recognize that it is confronting a culture that has lost its predominant guiding theme or authority, and a culture that has lost sympathy for the church’s cause. The Western church must reevaluate its accumulated Christian tradition and balance that tradition against Postmodernity’s insistence upon a multitude of equally acceptable and often conflicting views.

Theological Reflection

Well after the buzz of last week (Halloween, All Saints, prayer over the visit of the Dalai Lama), I haven’t been good for much blogging this week. I realize that blogging consistently requires a certain level of personal awareness and reflection. And if one wants to describe things from a Christian perspective it also requires theological reflection – not just “This is a biblical idea” but “What is this idea saying to me or to my situation?” This week I’ve had a lot of the first but not much of the second.

I conducted a funeral this week. The deceased was only 55, thin, active and fairly healthy but died of a heart attack. He had just this past weekend finished the cottage he had been working on for years (well made it livable with plumbing and electricity). He had a 16 year old daughter who read a letter to her dad as part of the eulogy. That hit fairly close to home. I have a 16-year-old daughter. It’s my birthday in a week and 55 is, well … I’m not there yet but I can see it from here.

I also spent a day at a conference about key indicators of a transformed city. I posted about those last year. We had Glen Smith here discussing how they came up with those for Montreal. Basically the concept is “How do you know when what you’re doing is working?” If we are praying that we would have good government, that we would see neighbourhoods improved and cities transformed, then what does that really look like? How do we know we are going in the right direction?

These twelve indicators are a great paradigm but they need to be developed for the city of Toronto and many of them will be different – or at least some of them will be. That will take a lot of work – and theological reflection. If you want to check out the graphic I’ve included below in more detail, check out their website or the direct link to the twelve indicators PDF.

Around the World in 800 Days

My nephew Andrew Gardner and his friend Ryan are sailing around the world in what looks like a 35 foot sloop. (Well he's not actually my nephew - he's the son of my wife's second cousin.) Quite an adventure for a couple of guys just out of university. They will be posting their journeys on a blog Ryan and Andrew... Sailing Adventures Around the World.

Sail On!

It's a Good Thing

There are times when I catch a glimpse of the majesty and awesomeness of God - it is truly overwhelming. Psalm 8 says:
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
What is it to fall into the hands of this almighty, majestic God? It can be a fearful and dreadful thing being in the hands of God. Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" comes to mind.

So often that discipline and judgement feels to us like a bad thing. I've really come to see it as a good thing, a very good thing. It is good because it means I am a son and not just an employee of God. He pays attention to me. I am known by him and not just a speck of dust. Employees can be fired or bought out and left behind. But sons ... sons are remembered and thought about - even if they have disappointed us. Sons carry the bloodline and have a place in the inheritance even if they have been exiled or disowned. Sons are welcomed back even when they have been in a far country wasting their substance with riotous living (see Luke 15:11-32).

Sons are also subject to God's discipline - not merely for the purposes of punishment but because He wants to see them come into the fulness of their calling. He wants them to become everything He has created them to become.

Hebrews 12 has become an oft-read passage for me and reveals the love and purposes of God for me.

5And have you forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13"Make level paths for your feet,"[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Discipline and judgment are actually a sign of love and grace. God loves us too much to allow us to continue along a path of destruction. His discipline - even to the Israelites - is always intended to be a course correction and a sign that He has not abandoned us. If we listen closely, and are obedient, the discipline is short and the blessings are eternal.

Part of my prayer for you.
Blessings

Alan and Esther in Africa

It's been almost two weeks ago since they left for Africa and they won't be back until late January. Alan and Esther are unique missionaries. They have travelled to Africa a number of times already and go trusting that God will lead them day by day. They raise their own support (downsizing their lifestyle, selling off unneeded stuff, taking some donations) and go to help whomever God leads them to. They have helped AIDS and war orphans, helped prostitutes move off the street, provided housing in the slums, supported micro businesses, helped fix someone's wheelchair and will be helping drill wells. Their stories are being told on their blog (Esther in Africa) and it is worth following.

I think Alan and Esther typify one of the new types of missionary that help people help themselves. They are not a drain on a denomination's finances, they don't take away from local missionaries and they empower the nationals to do the work themselves. They give life to the Chinese quotation: "A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people will feel they did it themselves."

Blessings to you and our prayers go with you.

All Saints Day

With all the fuss over Halloween (or All Hallows Eve) it's strange that there is almost no awareness of the reason for the holiday - All Saints' Day (or All Hallows, or Hallowmas - "hallows" meaning "saints," and "mas" meaning "Mass"). It is a feast celebrated on November 1 or on the first Sunday after Pentecost in honour of all the saints, known and unknown. Although the Christian elements of this holiday have been overshadowed by the commercialism (candy, costumes) and the occult, there are some vestiges of historic Christian origins seen in our current celebrations. Let's look through some of the history to see some of the mingling of the sacred and secular.

In the early Church, Christians would celebrate the anniversary of every martyr's death for Christ (known as the saint's "birth day") by serving an All-Night Vigil, and then celebrating the Eucharist over their tomb or place of martyrdom. Frequently, a number of Christians would suffer martyrdom on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian (245-316) the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. Over time it also became a day to venerate all saints who had passed on not just martyrs. All Souls' Day was eventually added following All Saints Day to commemorate the departed faithful who had not yet been venerated as saints.

A commemoration of "All Martyrs" began to be celebrated as early as the year 270. It was originally celebrated around Easter and then on the first Sunday after Pentecost which is the day the Eastern Orthodox church still celebrates All Saints Day. The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced back to Pope Gregory III (731-741) who moved it to November 1 coinciding with the Celtic pagan holiday of Samhain.

In the first ages, during the night before every feast (primarily Christmas, Easter, Assumption and All Saints), a vigil was kept. In the evening the faithful assembled in the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves by prayers, readings from Holy Writ and sometimes also by hearing a sermon. On such occasions, as on fast days in general, Mass also was celebrated in the evening, before the Vespers of the following day. Towards morning the people dispersed to the streets and houses near the church, to wait for the solemn services of the forenoon. The morning intermission gave rise to grave abuses; the people caroused and danced in the streets and halls around the church.

So we see that even in the sacred observance of All Saints there were elements of the current Halloween celebration going on. There was the gruesomeness and violence of the martyring of the saints, some elements of the ghostly in remembering those who had gone before and then we see the carousing connected to the abuses during the vigils of the night before a feast.

For Christians this should be a time when we do remember the contributions of those who have gone before. We rest on their shoulders and are able to learn much from them. We certainly have a heritage received from the Apostles as they live with the Saviour and passed down much of our Scripture. We learn from the church fathers and those who were persecuted for their faith. The saints of old and the saints of the Reformation to those who have only recently passed away - each contributes to our fuller understanding of the purposes of God. This remembering challenges us to press on to the high calling of God as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us ...

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3