The Next Christendom 1

I am reading Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom, so I expect to share some of it on this blog from time to time. Jenkin's basic thesis is that "Christianity was as authentically African or Asian as European" and that "far from being an export of the capitalist West, a vestige of European-American imperialism, Christianity is now rooted in the Third World, and the religion's future lies in the global South."(1)

He offers a couple of interesting tidbits in support of his thesis early in the book.

Of the five ancient patriarchates of the chruch, only one, Rome, clearly stood in the West. The others were at Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria--three on the Asian continent, one in Africa. If we can imagine a Christian center of gravity by 500, we should stil be thinking of Syria rather than Italy...(2)

When we refer to Christianity forming a relation with the secular state, Western historians think first of Constantine, who granted toleration within the Roman Empire in 313. Far less celebrated are the other early states that established Christianity as their own official religion in the fourth century, namely Ethiopia and Armenia. Almost certainly, Armenia was the first state anywhere to establish Christianity as an official faith, which it did around the year 300. (3) [bold mine]

For good measure, Jenkins plainly states that "monasticism is an Egyptian invention." I expect to gain a more balanced view of the history and direction of Christianity through Jenkins' work and I will try to pass along any jawdroppers that I encounter. I am about 50 pages deep, and I can already highly recommend this book.


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1. Jenkins, xi.
2. Ibid, 21.
3. Ibid, 22-3.

Pay, Mama, Dada, Pay

I hate it when people let blogs lay silent for weeks. And, I'm guilty as charged. Long vacation, attending/presenting at a conference, first weeks of school, planning an event for 2100 college freshmen, blah, blah, blah. It's been a busy month or so.

That said, I return with what I think is a cute, fun, heart-warming, and encouraging story about my son.

Simon is talking more and more these days, even stringing three or four words together at times. Lately, when we sit down to dinner, he almost always stretches out his hands and reaches for Laurie on his left and me on his right and says, "Pay, mama, dada, pay." Which, of course, means "pray." We usually have to do this 2-3 times during the course of the meal. So, we say the Lord's prayer, a prayer for friends and family, and a prayer of thankfulness. Even at such a young age, it's clear that something special, desirable, and good comes through in taking the time to "do prayer." And, it's striking that what he picks up on is the ACT of prayer: the hands, the quiet, the stillness, the "Amen" at the end (which he emphatically shouts as "ah-MEEEN!).

In many aspects of life, the process or the act of doing is often as powerful as the language.

Saint Batman?

An interesting read for those who have seen the new Batman movie from Father Raymond J. de Souza, a Roman Catholic priest at Queen's University in Australia. Many of my friends came to mind as I read this one.

"Gotham needs a hero with a face," we are told. Yes, the world needs a witness to the truth, the goodness and the beauty of reality; a witness to the order of creation; a witness to the enduring reason through which all things were made; a witness with a human face.

We don't call those people superheroes. We call them saints.

Codex Sinaiticus

The oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament is now available online (news story here). The Codex Sinaiticus was written in the mid-300's AD and includes other ancient writings outside of the NT including the Shepherd of Hermas (on which I wrote a graduate paper and I highly recommend, especially if you like Revelation), Epistle of Barnabas, 1 & 2 Clement, and the Didache.

Enjoy!

New U.S. Religion Data

I love maps. My office walls are covered in them. And, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has a whole mess o' new maps, charts, and graphs related to American religion. For a quick taste, here is a portrait of American Evangelical churches.

There is more here that you probably ever wanted to know about religious demographics in America. You can sort by tradition, gender, income, race, region, and on and on starting on the main page.

My early favorite for weirdest question in the survey: "How often do you receive a definite answer to a specific prayer request -- would you say at least once a week, once or twice a month, several times a year, seldom, or never?"

And, Jehovah's Witness members took home the Golden Clasped Hands Award for praying the most. A whopping 89% said that they "pray daily." Mormons and historically black churches took silver and bronze. Evangelicals finished a disappointing fourth.

Seriously, this is really interesting data full of thought-provoking pieces, cultural insight, and humor. Give it a look.

Wrath of God

Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

People often think of "the wrath of God" in this Ghostbuster-ish way. Our church is currently working through Romans on Wednesday night, and I talked about Romans 1.18-32 gives us a slightly different perspective on God's wrath last Wednesday night.

Saint Paul tells us that the "wrath of God" is the other edge of God's two-edged sword: Righteousness and Wrath. So, in a sense, it is merely another way of "putting the world to rights," as N.T. Wright would put it. Saint Paul was writing primarily against idolatry in this section. People were fashioning gods from clay, wood, or metal and worshiping them. Absurd! Not only did they make the mistake of not worshiping God the Creator, but they even one-upped the common pantheistic mistake of worshiping His creation. They took that falsehood a step further by worshiping their OWN creations (images of humans, animals, birds, reptiles) that mimicked the Creation of God. This is TWO (three?) steps removed from the only source worthy of worship.

Romans 1 reminds us to acknowledge God in all things. "The righteous will live by faith." Those who abandon this are given over to their desires to be "free" of God or to be God (not that they will actually BE free or BE God, mind you). This results not in an elevation of their own status, but a degradation of their lives. Instead of pursuing the immortal God, they tout their own ways, human ways, of thinking. This leads to a false sense of intelligence and knowledge which leads away from God even as they believe that they are being enlightened.

Thus, the wrath of God is the other edge of that sword of righteousness. Both edges ensure that we understand who is the Creator and ruler of all. Wrath can be viewed as punishment, but it seems to be more of a way of setting things right.

Boston Marathon 2 (Marathon::Life)

As I've said before on this blog, I champion running as my preferred form of exercise mainly because our bodies are designed to do it. It requires no apparatus of any kind. No special court/field/pitch/stadium/pool/etc. No balls, bats, racquets, flags, discs, poles, hoops, gloves, weights, or any other objects are needed. If we did not become so dependent on shoes so early in life, we would not even need those. In fact, for most of human existence, we didn't. Running simply requires speeding up the normal motion of walking until you become airborne. Then, you are running.

Beyond that, running a marathon is a test of Will vs Physiology. The motion of running is normal. Running 26.2 miles as fast as possible is NOT normal. Weird things happen to your body when you run this far especially when trying to cover that distance in as little time as possible. Any fast runner can line up and blast out a fast 100 meters. But, even the fastest runners would not be able to run 26.2 miles without some endurance training. And, this is where marathoning and life intersect.

Success in life and marathoning comes with learning how to handle adversity and change. Marathon training will bring pain, injury,and loneliness along with joy, comfort, and a sense of accomplishment. This life offers much the same. Becoming a better runner, much like the Christian life, hinges on this: consistency over time. There will be periods of great health and poor health, personal records and disappointments, sunny weather and brutal climates. But, as James 1:2-3 tells us, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." We can do this because God is constant and unchanging (consistency over time). We attempt to mimic that constancy by taking heart in who God is, what Christ has done, and what he is doing/will do. Our individual acts and flaws will cause us to stray and doubt at times, but with each setback or shortfall, the race continues and we keeping running even when it would seem easier or feel better to stop. But, we do not stop because that would keep us from the ultimate goal.

Marathoning, like the Christian life, is mostly about learning how to deal with good and bad--that is, how to deal with life. Marathoning makes us acutely aware of the joy and pain of this life. One takes on the long months of training knowing that there will be an investment of time and pain. One toes the Boston Marathon race starting line accepting the reality that to reach the ultimate goal, whether it be winning the race (Robert Cheruyiot, Kenya, 2.07.46) setting a personal best (me, 3.06.04), or simply finishing the race, there must be a fierce trial with pain in order to achieve the prize. Reaching the ultimate goal has little to do with machismo or toughness and a lot more to do with acceptance of reality and a willingness to participate in that reality.

This is not to say that everyone should run marathons, of course, but that if you are going to run 26.2, there are some very real requirements and sacrifices: time, comfort, sweat, pain. This is true for most things in life, marathoning just happens to be the one that has been teaching me of late. But, these things not only bring joy, but teach us to realize the joy not only in what is gained from these sacrifices, but in the sacrifices themselves. To be sure, the joy of short-term accomplishments like finishing a marathon (or whatever your particular goal might be) is wonderful, and I am relishing it. But, the pain, the shortfalls, the letdowns--these are great teachers and motivators to continue to press onward and finish the race.

Simply Christian

Last night, our church finished a study of N.T. Wright's Simply Christian. We took it chapter by chapter for 16 weeks and each chapter was led by one of our Session members. I am somewhat saddened that it is over because it was such a great study. However, this book is one that not only informed me, but changed the way I see everything, so it's not really "over" in that sense. I will try to be brief in my attempt to communicate Wright's fundamental message.

There are three basic ways that people seek God:

Option 1. God is everywhere and in everything including me, you, the trees, and your pet rabbit. This is the pantheistic view.

Option 2. God and His heaven exists in some faraway place unreachable by humans. This earth is vile and corrupt and will be destroyed and replaced at some point by this faraway God and His heaven. Thus, earthly things and physical things do not matter much in eternity. This is sort of a Deist view.

Option 3. Heaven and earth interlock and overlap. The Christian life is primarily focused on doing God's will in this world and bringing it closer to the ideal--the way God intended it to be. God is not a tree or a pet rabbit, but those are part of His creation. God is also close and visible at times in this present world, but his full renewal is not complete.

Wright goes with Option 3. My tradition growing up and most Christians that I know/knew lean more toward Option 2. Seeing the world as an "Option 3 person" changes everything. This view seems much more consistent with the story of the Bible (Israel being constantly renewed and called to reconciliation with God). The redemption of the world is not only future, but also past and present. As instruments in this world, we get to participate in its restoration now and in the future.

That's my feeble attempt at a short summary. I am really making an effort to value brevity in my speaking and writing these days. For more, please do read Simply Christian. I am confident that it will challenge you.

Hey Kids: GO TO CHURCH

Does going to church help offset being born into disadvantaged life circumstances?

Journalist Melissa Lafsky reports that the answer appears to be: YES.

Overall, we find strong evidence that youth with religiously active parents are less affected later in life by childhood disadvantage than youth whose parents did not frequently attend religious services.

Rapture Ready

My primary job this summer is to bond with and take care of my 5-month-old son. As I rocked him to sleep yesterday afternoon, I turned on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) to see what the face of Christianity looks like to the millions at home watching TV and happening upon this giant Christian network.

What I got was "Rapture ready." This is the calling card of TV preacher Rod Parsley on his program, Breakthrough. In the future, maybe a long post on the idea of the Rapture can happen, but for today let's simply think about where this puts the focus of our faith: the end of time. It seems to me that a lot of TV preachers have two foci: earthly material wealth and "being saved" from hell. Where do these ideas put the focus of our faith? MY material wealth in this life and MY personal salvation are right up front. Of course, most preachers also focus on converting others so that they can have wealth and be saved, but the engine that drives all of this is self-aggrandizement and self-preservation.

I am not degrading the value of a good life or eternal life, but were these the greatest concerns of Jesus? Of Paul? I would argue that they were not. In fact, the focus of Christ seemed to be giving up material wealth. Certainly, personal salvation was extremely important, but personal salvation in the context of how that transforms our lives and our priorities, not simply how it saves us from hell.

Are we saved? If so, praise be to God for eternal life. But, does that not have a massive impact on how we live NOW?

I believe it does, and it has little to do with accumulating cars, houses, or blessing me with $35,000 if I pray for 10 people. There is a good deal of patient endurance in Christ, of struggling with brothers and sisters in Christ, of showing Christ to others in word and deed, and of constantly challenging ourselves and others to conform more to His likeness.

More on the (lack of a) Rapture (a word that does not appear in the Bible, and a word that is rooted in Latin, not Hebrew or Greek) another day.

Oh, and today, make sure you are Rapture ready.

Creeds as Flags

TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5 miles

Recently, a friend passed along a podcast of eminent historian Jaroslav Pelikan's 2003 interview with Krista Tippett on the radio program Speaking of Faith. Pelikan made lots of interesting insights into the importance of creeds in faith, but one statement has stuck with me for several days:

"Creeds act a bit like our flags. We look to them as representation of what we believe."

That quote may not be 100% precise, but that was the idea conveyed by Pelikan. Creeds may not capture or communicate all of the intricacies of our personal beliefs, but they do unify us to some degree. They are a bit of a rudder as we sail the seas of faith and life. They are a bit like flags. When Americans sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" or as hundreds of Mexican flags go up when Mexico scores a goal in the World Cup, the flag is a representation of history, present, and future. They represent where those countries have been in times of peace and war, joy and sorrow, unity and division. The creeds function in a similar way for Christians.

Unfamiliar with creeds? Two of the most recited creeds are the Nicene creed and the Apostle's creed. Millions of Christians around the globe affirm these creeds every day.

Get more podcasts from SpeakingofFaith.org. Read another Pelikan interview on Credo on Beliefnet.com.

Gimme That Old-Time Religion(?)

"Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me!"

The old spiritual conjures up images of rural churches in early 20th century America, and that is precisely the issue. The "old-time" religion and the ideas and images connected to it are not that old. Many Christians long for the "old-time religion" that goes all the way back--eons and light years--to the late 19th century. The hymn, "Give Me That Old-Time Religion" was adapted from an African-American spiritual in 1889 and published in 1891 by Charlie Tillman. The old time religion is not so aged. There were about 1900 years of Christianity before it.

Similarly, Christian fundamentalists are often viewed as defenders of traditional Christian values and "conservers" of old ways of faith. In many ways, they were (and are) precisely the opposite. In 1925, fundamentalists were dealt a significant blow at the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. People felt that Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan's exchange put fundamentalist Christianity in a bad light. So, during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the Fightin' Fundies went underground. They did not rely on old methods; they used new methods to build their base. They created summer camps, meetings, and conferences. They separated from secular society and created their own colleges and other schools. They used mass-produced pamphlets and papers to spread their ideas. They turned to the newfangled radio and made use of the new airwaves. Charles Fuller's Old Fashioned Revival Hour converted thousands to fundamentalist Christianity by appealing to listeners with intimacy, family, conservatism, and "old-time" comfort during the Depression and WWII (1). The use of new technology has remained at the forefront of fundamentalism through the mass production of written material, television, movies, and the internet.

Despite their call for old-time comfort, their theology had a "new" feel as well. Dispensational premillennialism ("Rapture Theology" or "Antichrist Theology") was not popularized until the mid-1800's. This fit their world view well, because they were separating from the Godless society that they saw around them. Dispensational Premillennialists saw the world in decline and themselves as a persecuted group. World War II seemed to bring some fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the Antichrist, rampant war, world conquest, and the like, but the Second Coming did not occur.

We must go back much farther than American fundamentalism to understand "old" Christianity. "Old-time religion" is only old in the way that Def Leppard is an "ancient band." One can use the term as a descriptor and people will know what is meant, but it certainly is not literally true. There are nearly 1900 years of Christianity before "old-time religion."

(1) Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again: the Reawakening of American Fundamentalism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 31-34, 138-140.