The Jury is Still Out on Europe's Religious Future

Christianity Today ^ | June 2020 | Thomas Albert Howard

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Conservatives, in the United States and elsewhere, are sometimes faulted for blaming “the 1960s” for many of today’s most persistent social ills. Surveying the situation in contemporary Europe, French social theorist Olivier Roy suggests that they are mostly right—at least with respect to recognizing that the 1960s mark a moral and religious watershed in modern history.

Roy warns that we will misinterpret the 1960s if we see it as a “mere hedonistic craze.” Hedonism, he adds, might have been part of the decade, but “the student revolts of 1968 marked a complete anthropological revolution, whose values are today enshrined in law and deployed in rigorous codes of human relations. … The Sixties revolution brought about new moral norms precisely because it broke with the previously dominant culture”—one that had been largely shaped by the Judeo-Christian heritage, broadly understood.

What were the new moral norms ushered in by the demonstrations? For Roy, they are twofold: First, “the valorization of freedom,” not simply as a political ideal but as a reality that should encompass the entirety of human desire (except for explicit violence and pedophilia); and second, “the valorization of nature”: the view that the environment, one’s body, and one’s instincts are simply terrestrial realities, manifesting nothing transcendent and certainly not serving as the locus for “natural laws,” as the classical and Christian tradition had long posited. One should take care of nature, to be sure, but purely to secure a good earthly life, not because it signifies the splendor of God.

...Recent nationalist and populist movements in Europe often make emotion-laden appeals to recover Europe’s “Christian heritage.” Roy’s response is that appearances can deceive. These movements are primarily interested in defending Christianity as a cultural heritage...not as a matter of living faith...

[CondoleezzaProtege]

[stanne]

Jury??!!!!

They’re not doing this democratically.

[Billthedrill]

It’s the kind of jury where if you don’t render the right verdict they cut your head off.

[Bishop_Malachi]

These movements are primarily interested in defending Christianity as a cultural heritage...not as a matter of living faith...

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Something is better than nothing. If future generations are going to have access to the Gospel and be able to live it, it’s far easier to do so in a culture that tolerates it than one that persecutes it.

[xp38]

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Europe has generally become not just secular, but anti-Christian - to the point that in many places, Christians are actively shunned. Many cities might be lucky to have more than one - yes, one! - evangelical Christian church.

My brother and wife are, at the age of 67 & 65, respectively, preparing to go into the mission field in Europe for this very reason.