Christianity for the 21st Century

There's a lot of discussion about where Christianity is headed in this new century. Bishop Spong says it has to change or die. That's probably a little overstated, because the more traditional kind of Christianity is booming in other parts of the world. Pentecostals, evangelicals, and fundamentalists are making inroads all over Latin America, Africa, and Asia. These aren't missionary movements either, they're home grown. So, to say that Christianity is on a deathbed is probably a publisher supplied title to boost sales. However, Spong is right that traditional Christianity is going to have to change to remain viable in Europe, North America, and other developed parts of the world like New Zealand and Australia.

I live in the developed world (in spite of what others may think of Texas), and it seems to me that the fundamentalist and evangelical strains of Christianity are in their death throes in the developed world. They want to take us back to a kind of mythological Golden Age of tradition. That is simply not going to happen. The fundamentalists of the Muslim variety want to accomplish something similar. They harken back to the Golden Age of Andalusia which they feel was robbed from them by the Christians around 1492. I read an intriguing article on Muslim Wake Up! this week about the aura for contemporary Muslims surrounding Muslim Spain of about 500 or 600 years ago. It's quite revealing, and when you consider that something similar is going on with traditionalists in the Christian faith, then you are really taken aback.

In my area of the world, Christianity is something that one would do privately and not promote. In fact, people where I work are quite put off by even the casual mention of it in a serious vein. So, what's to be the 21st Century's Kind of Developed World Christianity? Is it going to have to be non-theist? Probably. Is it going to have to be Universalist? Probably. Humanist? Probably. Is it going to have the capacity to tranform lives the way it's been known to have done in the past? That's the real crux (pun intended) of the matter. Metanoia, in the final analysis, is what mature religion is about. I believe it's going to have to offer more than just ritual and spiritual music. It's got to be about change in the sense of betterment. What good is it for humanity collectively for an individual to think she's bought a condo in Heaven, and behave like an asshole here on earth? None. Absolutely none. That's kind of taking the question Jesus asked, "What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?", and turns it on its head. What does it profit humanity to gain its soul a place in heaven, and lose the world? I think that's the question for the 21st Century. And that question is still on the table waiting for an answer.
- posted by Marcos @ 8:08 PM