Commentary; Posted: 7/18/07
Christianity in Europe
Rev. John C. Blackford,
Religion Columnist
Europe is the cradle of western Christianity, and its center for 1500 years. However, many in both the secular and the religious press have said for the past half-century that Europe is “post-Christian” and thoroughly secularized.
Their question is, “Will Europe continue to depart from its Christian roots, or will it return to its ancient roots?”
Recently there have been some signs of a spiritual awakening, according to several respected observers.
One of them, Charles Colson, in commenting on the life of the European churches, said, “To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Christianity’s demise in Europe may have been greatly exaggerated.” (Many will remember Colson for his involvement in the Watergate political scandals of the 1970s, which led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, and to the imprisonment of some of his associates, including Charles Colson. He later founded the Prison Fellowship Ministries, and went on to become a commentator on the cultural life of the nation).
Agreeing with Colson’s assessment is Dr. Philip Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University, who has written extensively on religion and especially Christianity, including God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis.
He told The Catholic World Reporter, “There are a lot of Christians in Europe and there’s a lot of Christian sentiment remaining. If you talk about institutional, organized Christianity, it’s in deep trouble, but there’s still a lot left.”
What does Jenkins mean by “a lot”?
There are slightly over 725 million people in Europe, and he estimates there are about a half billion who are nominally Christian, of which he believes 75 million are “pretty dedicated, pretty devoted, pretty hard core.” This calculates into a little more than 10 percent with a strong faith commitment.
They appear to be making a difference, and he says, “Cultural Christianity is a much stronger force probably than it has been for 50 years in Europe.”
Dr. Jenkins cites that even within denominations that appear to be dying, primarily the state churches, there are indications of renewal.
He mentions the evangelical congregations within the Church of England (called the Episcopal Church in the USA), some Lutheran movements, but above all these, the new religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Although these movements do not include large numbers, Jenkins says they command “a lot of influence.”
Perhaps the most culturally liberal nation on the European continent is the Netherlands, or Holland.
Dutch author Joshua Livestro speaks of “a Dutch relapse into religiosity,” and that there is growing evidence that “Holland is on the threshold of a new era – one we might call the age of ‘post-secularization.’”
He refers to government statistics which claim that between 40 percent and 52 percent consider themselves to be Christian. Livestro writes of manifestations of a religious stirring, including a “corporate prayer” movement, in which prayer in the working place is becoming accepted.
Government offices, universities and more than 100 companies allow groups of employees to organize regular prayer meetings on their premises. Further, trade unions have begun to lobby the government for recognition of workers’ rights to prayer in the workplace.
Youth in the Netherlands are showing growing interest in Christianity, and youth churches are appearing everywhere.
A survey conducted by CBS noted that between 2003 and 2004, church attendance among youth under 20 rose from 9 percent to 14 percent.
Some youth, not yet feeling at home in a church building, gather to pray, read the scriptures and fellowship in schools, parking lots, sports halls and especially homes.
Openly Christian writers are finding a demand for their books and other writings, and there is a growing popularity for Christian teaching in informal settings. One further factor in the Christian renewal in the Netherlands listed by Dr. Livestro is immigration.
When immigration in Europe is considered, most think of the followers of the Islamic faith, and in that nation of some 16 million people, the one million Muslims who have come since the early 1950s are a significant number.
But in the past decade, Muslim immigration has been surpassed by a larger stream of immigrants, namely Christians from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, and there are an estimated 700,000 of them. For every new Muslim moving to Holland, there are at least two new Christian immigrants.
The light of faith has burned more brightly in Poland in the past 50 years than in any other European country.
When it comes to the still very secular atmosphere in the rest of the continent, “Poland cuts across the grain,” in the words of Tom Hundley of the Chicago Tribune.
He reports that Poland’s churches are packed; its seminaries are graduating large numbers of priests. Census data indicates 96 percent of Poles identify themselves as Roman Catholic, and 57 percent say they attend mass weekly.
A leader for the League of Polish Families said that movement gets a lot of inspiration from pro-family and pro-life groups from our nation.
“I feel much closer to the United States than to Europe. I’m very concerned about France, Germany, even Italy; they’ve lost their way in terms of moral development,” he lamented.
Charles Colson speaks a word of optimism when he says, “As the Dutch are discovering after a century of secularization, it’s not too late. It never is with the Gospel. While Christianity may be ‘completely new’ to them, its truths are eternal. And that gives Europeans, and all of us, great hope indeed.”
Acknowledgment: American Family Association Journal, July, 2007 for quotations.
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