Speaking from a European perspective, following talks with Christians I know here in Germany, I have come to question the future of the church. We are already seeing churches being given over to secular uses, parishes shrinking and being merged, a lack of Pastors and Priests. What future does the church have?
The state of our knowledge today in all areas, and the abundance of information, requires us to update spiritual topics. We cannot stand still with knowledge as it existed 2000 years ago and even longer. Today we know much better how complex the experience of people is. We understand how complicated the brain is, and partly how we think. We also know how entangled we are in confusing structures and which powers have their hands in the game. We have even developed various theories about the reality behind the “control panel” that our brains produce to ensure our survival. And, most importantly, we know that we know nothing, but that our questions far outweigh our answers, and do not diminish. The crude statement that “God has helped me”, in the face of this enormous entanglement that is our existence, is felt like a slap in the face by people who suffer hardship.
The consideration, as far as it happens, to still go to church depends in the first place on whether it can offer something that one needs. It is not so much whether Christians are convinced they have something to offer, but how it is viewed from the outside. Christians say, “we have a message!” But what is that message really? It is basically the statement that there is hope in repentance. Just as God “turned” man’s crime into salvation, so man must “turn” in his way of thinking. But what is this hope? A life after death? An escape from the eternal fire? It doesn’t sound very appealing.
Through the great amount of information I received, through books, lectures, and exchanges with others, I evaluated and examined my own experience. It was the training as a nurse for the elderly and, of course, dealing with people in the borderline of life that caused a great change in my attitude. A better understanding of people, of their circumstances, of the powers that direct our lives, of biology, of nature, and ultimately, of how stories come about that have a lasting impact on people and societies, have helped me look at faith differently.
There is no doubt in my mind that life is mysterious, the emergence of life in the diversity that has existed, onto a lonely planet into a vast universe is something special. That this development brought forth an intelligent being, who is also conscious of his consciousness, who can reflect on all that can be experienced, is something special. We do know that there may be other animals that are sentient, but for me that only adds to the specialness of life. So, it’s no wonder that humans have seen this specialness as a calling from a Creator, a responsibility to all that has been called “good.”
Even if the idea of a creation as described in the Bible is a somewhat romantic idea and does not correspond to reality, as geologists and astrophysicists testify to us, we can conclude that we have been given something wonderful. Moreover, it must be noted that, however it came about, the blueprint for all organic life was present in the rocks, dust, chemicals and energy before any planet was habitable. Life originated on a planet that was just a glowing mass for a very long time. The duration of “creation” was not conceivable to the Old Testament authors, but the principle of emergence was. Of course, the mythology of creation was written at a time when much had been overcome, life was not the struggle it had been ten or twenty thousand years ago. The Ice Age was long gone, as were some devastating natural events that cost so many lives. This struggle is not included in the first creation account, but it was not that important to the generation that was supposed to read the scriptures.
The story of Adam and Eve was a new story that then continues to the creation of Israel, providing a narrative that explains Israel’s calling to be the people of God. In essence, the interruption by the Flood story is a divide that separates the legends of the antediluvian period from a historicizing narrative of the period that followed. We are still not speaking of history in the sense we understand it today, but we are getting closer to it. It is still legendary figures whose story is told, and in doing so, history contains lessons that are outdated, but reflect the times well. In part, they still speak to us because they are basically about man himself. People then also had a different idea of God, more in line with the paradoxical living conditions and experiences of the people of that time than the idea found later in the New Testament, let alone today.
We must not disregard the fact that we are now 2,000 years removed from the accounts of Jesus, and in between there have been experiences that gave little hope that the coming of a Messiah had changed anything. Rather, the Church has been caught up in the power struggles of the intervening period, but the worst wars and atrocities are not uncommon even in the twentieth century. And yet the Church is partly responsible for the coming of the Enlightenment, even if it has at times resisted new knowledge. Paradoxically, the Church itself was often partly responsible for the greatest resistance to it.
It is debatable whether the Enlightenment or the Church ultimately made society more peaceful. The fact is that the implementation of the newer knowledge helped people overcome material problems, and that before the two world wars there was a flourishing of art and literature that was idealistic in nature. Unfortunately, the wars resulted in many ideals surviving only as ideologies that caused untold suffering. Only the fright about what man is capable of and what he has done let a relatively peaceful time follow them, which, however, was by no means without great suffering here and there either.
That is why faith is met with a certain amount of scepticism in modern times. People who have had good experiences with it are in the minority. There is also another minority that has experienced extremely bad things with the church, which is becoming more and more known. In between we have people who have no experience with the church, or only marginally, through wedding, baptism, funeral, and confirmation. I know many people who say that their life is influenced by Christianity, but that does not mean that they believe in it.
So, what affect will the shrinking church have on western society? Will the evangelical and fundamentalistic groups take over and gain any prominence in public life?
What will happen to spirituality?
If only they beleived in half of the same things!!