The Future of Christianity

Offers an assessment of the state of Christianity. This work addresses four issues: the God concept that must move beyond obsolete notions of a personal God; a sophisticated approach to the Bible; emphasis on Jesus' social ethic; and, the persistence of obsolete myth in Christianity. Christianity has endured for two thousand years, weathering the challenges of clerical corruption, religious wars, internal schism, and scientific criticism. Today, however, there is increasing evidence that institutional Christianity is succumbing to the growing secularism of contemporary society. Both church attendance and the number of clergy have noticeably declined. Will Christianity survive for another thousand years, or even a hundred years? In this probing assessment of the state of Christianity, biblical scholar Arthur J Bellinzoni boldly asserts that Christianity must break with the past and offer a new vision of the future if it hopes to survive. Addressing four issues of central concern, Bellinzoni advocates a radical rethinking of the Christian message.First, he suggests that the God concept must move beyond obsolete notions of a personal God and take its inspiration from such diverse sources as science, Taoism, Moses, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Buber. Second, Bellinzoni urges a more sophisticated approach to the Bible, one that values its timeless elements but is not afraid to discard its many antiquated features. Third, he recommends a new emphasis on Jesus' social ethic, arguing that this could lead to a dramatic redistribution of the world's wealth and greater respect for the planet. Fourth, Bellinzoni criticises the persistence of obsolete myth in Christianity, demonstrating that, without its mythical embellishments, Christianity still offers a relevant understanding of the meaning of human existence. A work of erudition that is also completely accessible to the lay reader, "The Future of Christianity" provides a stimulating critique that forward-thinking Christians will welcome.

This book offers a mature assessment of themes preoccupying David Martin over some fifty years, complementing his book On Secularization. Deploying secularisation as an omnibus word bringing many dimensions into play, Martin argues that the boundaries of the concept of secularisation must not be redefined simply to cover aberrant cases, as when the focus was more on America as an exception rather than on Europe as an exception to the 'furiously religious' character of the rest of the world. Particular themes of focus include the dialectic of Christianity and secularization, the relation of Christianity to multiple enlightenments and modes of modernity, the enigmas of East Germany and Eastern Europe, and the rise of the transnational religious voluntary association, including Pentecostalism, as that feeds into vast religious changes in the developing world. Doubts are cast on the idea that religion has ever been privatised and has lately reentered the public realm. The rest of the book deals with the relation of the Christian repertoire to the nexus of religion and politics, including democracy and violence and sharply criticises polemical assertions of a special relation of religion to violence, and explores the contributions of 'cognitive science' to the debate