After Christendom (pt. 3)
We’ve seen what Christendom is, and that it no longer describes our context. In this post we’ll look at how this happens. I can’t speak with dogmatism here, but what follows is the best I can tell for how we’ve moved into a post-Christendom culture.
Christendom is what happens when people adopt “Christian” moral practices without embracing the Christian gospel. And right from the beginning we see the problem. Christianity is not a religion of morals (sometimes we use religion in a specialized, pejorative sense, I’m not using it in that way here). Instead, it’s a religion of history. It’s about what someone else did 2000 years ago, as Jesus lived a perfect life, died for his people, and rose from the dead. There’s very little that’s morally unique about Christianity. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus (and others) all have similar moral teachings (though not identical). What sets Christianity apart are the facts about Jesus. Either he died and rose, or Christianity is a worthless lie (1 Corinthians 15.12-19). No other religion makes a claim like that.
So, Christianity is about history not morality. It’s about what Jesus has done, not about what I do or how I am changed. So, when Christians adopt moral practices, they do so in response to what Jesus has done. Christian ethics arise from the Christian narrative about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Apart from it, they make no sense. That’s why the Apostle Paul tells Christians to try to purify the church, rather than the world they live in (1 Corinthians 5.9-13).
With that in mind, it’s easy to see how Christendom failed. People adopt the morality without the story that gives the morality its meaning, and they can only do this for so long. Eventually it has to collapse. And that’s what we’ve seen. The church has been busy trying to clean up the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 5.9-13), thinking that if people’s morals would change we’d all be in better shape. But without the gospel, there’s no reason to change.
When the church sees itself as an agent of moral transformation, Christendom follows. When Christendom pervades, it’s only a matter of time before it crumbles.
In our last post, we’ll look at why the fall of Christendom is not a bad thing after all.
Posted by: Gene Schlesinger
great stuff.
[...] week looking at Christendom: what it is, the fact that it no longer describes us, and how (I think) this came to be. In this final post, we’ll look at why I actually think that this is a good [...]
After Christendom (pt. 4) « 1.21 blog said this on June 29, 2009 at 8:31 am |