The Future of Religion in the World
Two views of the future of religion in the world are vying for our favor. Of course this is too simple: There is a well-populated continuum of opinion about what lies ahead, and there are numerous distinctions, both obvious and subtle, among even those perspectives which agree in larger relief.
However, I think it’s possible to discern this general divide: Some foresee the 21st century as bringing the triumph of secularization, while others anticipate that it will be the “religious century.”
In his recent essay “And the Winner Is…” (The Atlantic, March 2008), Alan Wolfe presents the case for the triumph of secularization. (Wolfe is director of the Boisi Center for Religion and Public Life at Boston College, and the article can be found here.) Surveying the rise of religious faith in many areas of the world and noting dire predictions of the demise of Enlightenment tolerance and the onset of religious conflict, Wolfe makes two observations:
First, many areas of the world are experiencing a decline in religious belief and practice. Second, where religions are flourishing, they are also generally evolving—very often in ways that allow them to fit more easily into secular societies, and that weaken them as politically disruptive forces.
His recommendation is not to bet against the power of the Enlightenment and the marketplace to erode religious fervor.
The big middle of his essay includes overviews of the major regions of the world, and Wolfe asks his readers to look beyond the current increases to religious belief and passion to the “inexorable advance of secular ideals, such as personal choice and pluralism,” which ideals are helping to create moderated forms of virtually every world religion, including Islam.
And yet Wolfe does not equate secularization with the demise of religion belief, but rather with religion’s willingness to find its place in the secularized marketplace of ideas. It might be, therefore, that Wolfe rejects the more virulent criticisms of religion espoused by writers like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, who seem to see religion as inherently evil (whatever “evil” might mean apart from some ultimately religious framework!), particularly as he describes the church in America as finding its comfortable place within secular context:
Consider what is occurring within the growing American evangelical movement. It has built megachurches that meet the needs of time-pressed professionals by offering such things as day-care centers, self-help groups, and networking opportunities. Its music owes more to Janis Joplin than to Johann Sebastian Bach. Its church officials learn more from business-school case studies than from theological texts. And its young people—well, as the children of parents who have gone through a born-again experience, they are not likely to be as obedient as the evangelical leader James Dobson wants them to be. Having opted to grow on secular terms, American evangelicalism is becoming less hostile to liberal ideas such as tolerance and pluralism. New efforts to take it in directions sympathetic to environmentalism and social justice are a direct result of the maturing of the faith, which followed from earlier decisions to make the movement more appealing to large numbers of Americans, especially the young.
This kinder and gentler Christianity bodes well, in Wolfe’s view, for the future, and he sees “intimations of a pluralistic, American-style religious revival” in other areas of the world as well, with religious peace as the single most important consequence of secularization’s triumph:
Historians may one day look back on the next few decades, not as yet another era when religious conflicts enveloped countries and blew apart established societies, but as the era when secularization took over the world.
Wolfe’s view of the future of religion stands in significant contrast with that put forward by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey in “Climate Change: A New Season for Faith” (Comment, March 2008; the essay is a revision of the introduction to their book How Now Shall We Live?). Their very different perspective is exemplified in this way:
…we are seeing the first signs that Christianity may be on the verge of a great breakthrough. The process of secularization begun in the Enlightenment is grinding to a halt, and many people believe that the new millennium will mark ‘the desecularization of world history.’
Noting several cultural indicators such as declines in crime, drug use, and abortion rates, and citing the warmer welcome given to moral and religious discourse in the public square, the authors suggest that cultural trends are shifting because of growing dissatisfaction with “modernity” and its consequences and a fervent groping for something that will make sense of life and provide transcendent meaning.
Americans have achieved what modernism presented as life’s great shining purpose: individual autonomy, the right to do what one chooses. Yet this has not produced the promised freedom; instead, it has led to the loss of community and civility, to kids shooting kids in schoolyards, to citizens huddling in gated communities for protection. We have discovered that we cannot live with the chaos that inevitably results from choice divorced from morality.
The failure of the secular and the loss of meaning provide the context for Colson’s and Pearcey’s call to the church to embrace its calling to offer to the world a “comprehensive life system that answers all of humanity’s age-old questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Does life have any meaning and purpose?” Such a calling enables Christians to engage effectively in the global marketplace of ideas and ideals, to declare and to demonstrate the sufficiency and all-encompassing truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be God’s agents in his redemptive purpose for his creation. Such a calling affects not only the church but every area of life: science and technology, arts and media, education, business, leisure and entertainment, law and government, home and family. Rather than inviting people to a private faith which gets comfortable with a leveled and secularized environment, Christianity contends for the truth and preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things, against other points of view and systems that offer futile promises and empty futures.
An extended aside: Colson and Pearcey mention that Abraham Kuyper “said that the dominating principle of Christian faith is not soteriological (i.e. justification by faith) but rather cosmological (i.e. the sovereignty of the triune God over the whole cosmos, in all spheres and kingdoms, visible and invisible)”. This reference points to an unfortunate tendency among some “worldview” and “cultural transformation” Christians to separate the redemption of culture from personal, individual salvation. Such a separation is not the view of the biblical writers, for whom the soteriological (justification by faith, sanctification, glorification for individual sinners) is the path to the cosmological (impact on culture and redemption of creation). Common grace is not salvific; only in union with, and in dependence on, saving grace is God’s redemptive purpose for his creation accomplished. Gospel evangelism, Bible study, and discipleship are essential elements of God’s saving work, and lead, as they are faithfully and biblically pursued, to the wider social and cultural impact of an active and Kingdom-minded church. I am sure that Colson and Pearcey would agree: this past weekend, my wife and I heard Colson at a gathering in Florida give a clear, biblical, and winsome presentation of the gospel – the call to confess and repent of sin, to trust in the gracious work of Jesus on the cross, and to believe and then obey. This is the only sufficient ground for genuinely Christian engagement with the world.
What are we to make of these two views of the future of religion in the world? Wolfe invites us to consider the triumph of secularization, with progressive moderation of religious fervor and eventual religious peace. Colson and Pearcey foretell the demise of the secular, as the promise of satisfaction in prosperity fails to come true and the peoples of the world turn increasingly to competing religious answers.
Certainly globalism, fueled by communication and the expanding economic marketplace, does have a profound effect on culture and religion. Even two centuries ago, Methodist preacher John Wesley bemoaned the supposed inevitable:
I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. (quoted in Wolfe’s essay)
So we must grant some merit to Wolfe’s primary point.
But Wolfe’s argument ultimately fails because he does not see beyond the merely historical and social dimensions of religious belief, the struggle in the realm of flesh and blood. The Bible reminds us again and again that there is a larger story being told, a story which involves principalities and powers, truly cosmic forces in the heavenly realms. The dramas played out among world religions are in fact dramas of spiritual scope beyond our capacity to see and understand apart from the illumination provided by God’s revelation.
Wolfe’s prediction of religious belief tamed by secular forces is naïve; the secular will never triumph, because the universe is not secular! While it is difficult to know what kind of future to anticipate, it is almost certainly the case that the cosmic spiritual battle will show up again and again in earthly forms until the Lord Jesus returns and every knee bows and every tongue confesses.
What does this mean for God’s people? Commit our way to him, knowing that he is a faithful and powerful God who will accomplish all that he intends. Be equipped with the gospel of peace, the truth of the Scripture, the encouragement and strength of the family of faith. Learn to see “worldviewishly,” grasping the implications of the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things and living out his preeminence in all dimensions of life and work. And prepare for our roles in the grand drama of history, contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, standing strong in the face of persecution and suffering, and holding out the hope of the gospel – until we see our Lord face to face.
Published on 20 Mar 2008 at 9:20 am. No Comments.