A few weeks ago, I went to York in northern England for meetings with fellow clergy from various Anglican Churches from Scotland, England, Croatia, Germany, and the US. We discussed the future of Christianity in Europe and prayed about our mission in it.
The Dutch missiologist Stefan Paas gave a keynote lecture. He is the author of books such as Church Planting in the Secular West. Learning from the European Experience, and Pilgrims and Priests. Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society.
Paas defines our secular age as post-christendom, post-Christian, and post-modern all at once. Post-Christendom means that the old reality of a cultural Christianity and a society shaped by its impact has now gone. Other forces shape culture now, and we cannot assume that the Christian voice will be heard on the free market of religion. Why do some people respond? Looking at missional efforts, one of the observations in this context is that ‘quality matters’. The self-critical question that we can ask about what the church has to offer is whether it is good enough. We might think it is true, but we have to tell that story well, otherwise people will just ignore it. On the other hand, for churches with a vibrant cultural tradition, for example with church music, there are opportunities for engagement.
The loss of Christendom as a cultural force is closely related to the loss of our faith in Christianity as a religion. One observation in this context is that this has gone faster for men than for women. Traditionally, it is women who are usually able to maintain the connection. (Though this trend seems to be reversed in the most recent surveys of Gen Z.) ‘Where do men get an appealing vision of what it means to be a mature religious person?‘ The answer is, unfortunately, not often. Interestingly, accessibility (as in: lowest-common-denominator evangelism) is not the issue. There is a clear group who are not interested in the easy and simple solutions often advocated. They are more interested in traditions with a connection to spiritual disciplines (Daily Office, monastic life), a good resource for adventurous discipleship, which is demanding and challenging.
In the part of the lecture discussing the post-modern, Paas remarked on the role of meals for conversations. Not just because “conversions start in the guts”, but also simply because meals slow things down. It takes time to overcome our ironic commitments, and it takes time (and courage) to become solid ‘others’ for others. These observations resonated with our experiences in different parts of Europe. It also resonated with encounters we had during our time together. It was also enriching to visit some churches, including the cathedrals of York and Durham.
Grave of the Venerable Bede in Durham Cathedral, where we prayed for Europe.
Related to these points, I have been wondering about a more fundamental question: what kind of metaphysical understanding of reality do we need to have in place for religion to make sense at all? What sort of fundamental worldview do we invite more-or-less “secular” people into when we invite them into our religion?
A generation or two ago, this question was often asked because of the need to validate the truth claims of Christianity, before people felt ready to sign up for it. This is not what I have in mind with this question. Rather, I keep wondering about what kind of world we need to live in for Christianity to make sense to us. If we expect or hope that people will join us, how will and how can they interpret what we are doing?
Perhaps this sounds a bit theoretical, but it is not theoretical at all. Our embodied cognition needs some kind of interpretation; it needs to make sense. I am not thinking about being able to fully account for every detail, because nobody can do that with anything. But I am thinking about training our imagination and about acquiring a basic level of cultural literacy (which includes knowledge of the Bible).
In short, how can we baptise the imagination of people so that Christianity makes sense again?
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