How Has Christianity in Europe Experienced Such a Dramatic Declination?

14 April 2009

How Has Christianity in Europe Experienced Such a Dramatic Declination?

Christianity in Europe once had such a strong constitution, whether it was within the Roman Catholic Church or within the Protestant Church. Religion and acknowledgement of a Lord and Savior was very important to the fervent worshippers of yesterday. Today, Europe is considered a post-Christian continent. In the past half-century or a little better, Christianity has become a minority faith, according to a Time Magazine special report, written in 2003. Mr. Chu, author of the report gives one reason as, “Governments are severing official ties to the faith that has been inextricably linked with European history since the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century.” The article deals largely with Catholicism, but as we investigate this declination of something, which was once central to European life, we see that it is by and large in the Evangelical community as well. So what has caused this sharp waning in European spiritual culture? Let’s examine.
The Government
Let us start with the understanding of William C. Brewer, who writes the book, Permanent Peace. He says that as long as a nation is tied together by the same values, the same language and the same religious belief that discipline and order is easy. But he says when nations and communities begin to band together and grow that the ideas of state and government begin to change. With this taken into consideration, an established government is needed to form, which rules over these merged nations and new rules are written and enforced. This is what happened in Europe after the Second World War. In 1950 ideas to unite Europe became active to ensure security. Branching from that came a united economic community and a common European market and the European Union was born. According to Mr. Chu, in the article above, this institution has been dissolving religious ties and has instead taken on an atmosphere of diversity and tolerance. Certainly, I believe this has been a major influence in the deterioration of godly tradition, but I believe there is more also.
Education Reform
With the dwindling case of religion in Europe, one would expect that a lack of Christian teachers also exists. Because of that be deficiency in of discernment in the educational system, different forms of education, besides the traditional one, has crept into schools. Education reform is an agenda, which consists of socializing children. Johann Gottlieb Fichte developed a school system and designed it much according to the philosophy of John Lock and Jean Jacques Rousseau, in which children were considered as “blank slates” on which anything could be written. For this reason, much of the minds of the children could be molded anyway in which the education saw fit. For the ideals, which had already been cast by Christian parents, behavior modification and values clarification was instituted. John Heenan said that after the 1960’s values clarification spread all over the western world’s school systems like wildfire. He says that the dangers in it are that the teacher has no authority, actual values are of no importance, there is no distinction between right and wrong and it leads to the acceptance of ethical relativism. It creates an indifference in the child, and takes away any objective outlook on morals, which God teaches in His laws for mankind. For this reason, such ideologies as values clarification, behavior modification or character education remove the child from God and the things of God, and instead replace them with a secular humanist viewpoint on life and the ethics thereof. This is directly against the Calvinist way of teaching, where in Ellwood P. Cubberley quotes H.D. Foster, in his book, The History of Education, “The strenuous moral training of the Genevese was an essential part of Calvin’s work as an educator. All were trained to respect and obey laws, based upon Scripture…” Prior to public schools, based on philosophy and phrenology, the Catholic Church also had taught based on religious beliefs. New reform-based education sought to destroy these principles.
Romanticism
Romanticism gained popularity in the Western World in the 19th century. According to Professor Frettner, “It replaces a faith in reason with feeling as the stronger expression of what we are,” and “What is strongly felt and imagined is real.” Romanticism is described as calling human beings to trust in instincts and feelings in decisions of their life. This is against what God has called for in His Holy Scriptures, wherein He tells us that the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. When a person gives into such a thought that they are able to control their decision-making without the consultation of God’s word, this becomes a real danger because God is soon left out of their lives all together. Romanticism, instead of seeking communion with God, seeks communion with nature. Romanticists thought that every human was, in part, divine and denied the existence of evil. Earle E. Cairns says that Romanticism also reinforced the idea of Biblical criticism. These ideologies, penetrating the minds of the congregants of any church system definitely weaken the spiritual structure of a nation and lead to the decline of Christianity.
Liberal Theology
As the class learned recently, gentlemen such as Schleiermacher, Ritschl and Wellhausen were used to jumpstart the liberal theology movement, which we have today. Their writings were taken and molded into a progressive theology, which essentially left Christianity devoid of truth. Higher criticism was introduced, in which it is believed that truth claims are subject to experience and reason. These areas have lead to such theologies of the Death of God theology, radical humanist relativistic and secular theologies and even more radical theologies such as black and feminist forms, which are based more on social injustice and social rights than on the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ. Each of these dogmas eats away at the fabric of Christian in a nation and cause declination thereof.
Industrial Revolution
In Lewis Copeland’s book, High School Subjects Self-Taught, he praises the Industrial Revolution for the beneficial results in convenient functions of methodical rules and innovations, and says that modern processes of transportation and transmissions made large-scale production possible, along with the dispersal of agriculture and industrialized, manufactured goods. However, all things, which look better, are not, and often times come with a cost. The cost of large-scale production seems to be an emphasis on material goods and Cairns says this turns the attention from the authority of Scripture to another way of faith and life. He says that when a person’s attention is on the material world, that the importance of spiritual values of eternal life is neglected. Cairns also states that Karl Marx highly stressed materialism in his philosophy, and quotes the Bible by saying, “Man does not live by bread alone” to prove his point. In The World of the Vatican, Robert Neville writes, “He (the Bishop of Rome) sees men who direct all their energy to one end. ‘the search for so-called earthly goods,’ guided by the one whom the Gospel calls the ‘price of darkness.’” “Modern progress, the Holy Father continued, ‘distracts men from their quest of higher goods, weakens the energies of the spirit, and leads to a loosening of the structure of discipline and former good order.’” This is further evidenced in Ecclesiastes 2, where Solomon gives an analogy of how he has had everything imaginable to man, yet was very sad without God in his life.
Theory of Evolution
Cubberley says that when Charles Darwin published his book, Origin of Species, that it “swept away the old theory of special and individual creation, which had been cherished since early antiquity, and substituted in its place the reign of law in the field of biological life.” Since the teaching of this dangerous premise has been established, man has become doubtful in his belief about God, Christianity and the like. This has been taken further, as Cairns says that the largest damage was done when the application of the theory of evolution was incorporated into the development of religion. He states, “God and the Bible were looked upon as the evolutionary products of man’s religious consciousness, and the books of the Bible were dated accordingly.” He states that this has been carried over to the justification that there is no conclusive establishment for the standard for morals and ethics. This educational practice weakens the Christians faith immensely, if not absolutely rooted in the faith of Scripture.
Socialism
Socialism is another aspect, which has taken a toll in Europe. The Fabian Society of the United Kingdom is one socialistic organization, which immediately comes to mind; however, there are many more in existence. John C. Bennet, in his book, Christianity and Our World, says that capitalism puts a fear in people, with its accumulated economic power, and that people deal with that fear by organizing into unions. He says that these organizations create both social grappling and resentment, and lead to difficulties in a Christian’s life. Arnold J. Toynbee, in his book, Civilization on Trial, states:
Communism, which is another one of our latter day religions, is, I think, a leaf taken from the book of Christianity – a leaf torn out and misread. Democracy is another leaf from the book of Christianity, which has also, I fear, been torn out and, while perhaps not misread, has certainly been half emptied of meaning by being divorced from its Christian context and secularized; and we have obviously, for a number of generations past, been living on spiritual capital, I mean clinging to Christian practice without possessing the Christian belief – and practice unsupported by belief is a wasting asset, as we have suddenly discovered, to our dismay, in this generation.
Now, if anyone is familiar with Arnold Toynbee, I think he or she would realize that he was definitely not a Christian, which is easy to conclude, seeing that he considered communism (which is very close to socialism) and democracy as branches of Christianity. However, even he argues here that the two associations have made belief in Christianity void, leaving only the practice and ritualism of it.
New Cults
New cults developed, also leading people astray from the true form of Christianity. Cairns attributes one reason of the rise of cults to lack of authority in the new liberal Christian theology. Cults such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, New Thought, Unity and Christian Science grew very fast in popularity. Another reason for this rapid growth was the war, because grieved families of those lost in war sought mediums, with which they might communicate with their loved ones. The Russelites, or Jehovah’s Witnesses also grew in esteem, as well as did the Oxford Group, or the Buchmanites, gathered groups away from the Christian church. This is not counting the Eastern religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism or the Unified Church of the Sun, which drew many way with their occult like practices of transcendental meditation, mind control and astrology charts.
Ecumenism
Ecumenism is a gathering of all Christian churches into one unit. We know that as the Body of Christ we are all unified through Him, but what ecumenism proves to do is to take all Christian churches of all dominions, and lump them together, whether conservative or liberal. After becoming organized into such a form as the Word Council of Churches (WCC) or the Edinburgh Council, they attempt to take away power from the conservative branches of Christianity and override it with a liberal agenda. Such an example shows in the formation of the Layman’s Missionary Inquiry, which was created in 1932, from the World Council of Churches. They only considered sending out liberal missionaries, which took an inclusivist stance. When mankind takes on an inclusivist role in Christianity, the purpose of evangelism fades, as does the truth behind the evangelism.
Secularism
Bennet says that secularism is defined as meaning, “the highest objects of devotion are human ideals and human causes which emerge in the social process.” He says that there are three roots of secularism in our society: intellectual, our habits of living, and the social aspects of our society, such as communism and socialism, which were addressed earlier in this document. The intellectual addresses the lack of religion in the public education system, which was also touched on earlier under “Education Reform.” But the part I want to address here is the habits of living aspect. Bennet says that man’s lives are so cluttered that his spirit life largely atrophies. He says that mankind’s life is so stimulated with noise and entertainment that there is little time for quiet and refection, and he says that this leads to the preoccupation of human achievement. When the majority of society’s thoughts are on worldly things, it is no wonder that things of the spirit die. This is also taught by the Apostle Paul, where he states that the carnal mind is an enemy of God, in Romans 8:7, and is also taught by him in 2 Corinthians 6:17, wherein Christians are told to be separate from the world.
Moral Decline
Bennet in his book states that morals and ethics have become a thing of confusion. He says, “The morality of external religious authorities and the morality of convention or tabu have broken down.” That kind of morality is known as objective, but he says that a new subjective morality, stemming from democracy, internationalism, humanitarianism were becoming more widely accepted. In other words, God’s morals have been replaced by mankind’s. Impartial ethics, imparted by the Creator have been exchanged for universalism, pacificism, toleration and diversity. Copeland says “In times of social change, moral standards are frequently challenged or disregarded by individuals, and are often less upheld less strictly by society as a whole.” For that reason, people change in their attitude toward dress, speech, and actions, in general, which do not preserve the fundamental standards of right and wrong.”
Psychology
Modern psychology is an enemy to the church. William Kirk Kirkpatrick wrote in his book, The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Naked Truth about the New Psychology, that all denominations of Christianity participate in psychology today. He says that while there is some room for Christianity to accommodate psychology that room is little, and that most of the matters don’t mix well. He compares exposing Christianity to those issues to lopping limbs off the Body of Christ. He says, “Christianity starts off by saying we are not OK the way we are. There is something wrong with us – a twist in our nature. And the twist is not removed by liking yourself, but by starting to live in Christ. He says that psychology teaches that “Man can perfect himself without God’s help, and since there is very little wrong with him in the first place, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross becomes both unnecessary and unintelligible. I do agree that most of the precepts of modern psychology are guided to build up self esteem, which do, in turn take away from man’s perception of the Gospel and need for the cross. Psalms 1:1 tells man not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. God’s word does not return to Him void, according to Isaiah 55:11, so it seems one should obey Psalms 1:1 or find the danger in disobedience – which is avoidance of God for one’s own reasoning and self-love.
There are many things, which I believe have caused Europe to become known as a Post-Christian continent. I will stop here for brevity, but contend that other ideologies, such as cultural relativism and similar philosophies, urbanization, abortion, women’s rights and civil rights, in general, and even media has caused a decline in the Christianity, which was once rife in Europe. According to Youth With a Mission, these facts can be known:
• That believers in China outnumber the whole population of Germany! (80 million)
• That there are more Anglicans in Nigeria than in the UK and the US combined!
• That one church in Korea has a membership equal to the whole population of Amsterdam!
• That there are more members of the Assemblies of God denomination in Brazil than there are evangelicals in the whole of Europe!
I believe, without reservation, that the reasons above are the biggest cause of this. The world is in an apostate phase, and things are only going to get worse from here on out. Discernment has left and Jesus prophesied that “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” – Matthew 24:12. This being said, this is the ultimate reason, which I can attribute to the declination of Christianity in Europe or anywhere else.














Bibliography
Bennet, John C., Christianity and Our World. New York: Association Press, 1936.
Brewer, William C., Permanent Peace. Philadelphia: Dorrance and Company Publishers, 1940.
Cairns, Earle E., Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981.
Chu, Jeff, “O Father, Where Art Thou?” Time Magazine, June 2003. http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/030616/story_6.html.
Copeland, Lewis, High School Subjects Self Taught. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1967.
Cubberley, Ellwood P., The History of Education. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1948.
Davidson, James West, William E. Gienapp, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H. Lytle and Michael B. Stoff, Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic, Volume 1: To 1877. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.
Europa: The History of the European Union. http://europa.eu/abc/history/index_en.htm.
Heenan, John, “Lessons from the Past, Models for the Future.” http://cornerstonevalues.org/2003pre.html.
Kirkpatrick, William Kirk, The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Naked Truth about the New Psychology. Westchester: Crossway Books, 1985.
Neville, Robert, The World of the Vatican. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1962.
Olson, C. Gordon, What in the World is God Doing? Cedar Knolls, Global Gospel Publishers, 2003.
Professor Fettner's PowerPoint Overview of Romanticism. http://www.temple.edu/ih/Romanticism.
Richman, Sheldon, “Separating School and State: How to Liberate American Families.” http://www.sntp.net/education/school_state_3.htm; accessed 13 June 2009.
Toynbee, Arnold J., Civilization on Trial. New York: Oxford University Press, 1948.
“What is Liberal Theology?” http://www.doxa.ws/Theology/Liberal.html.
YWAM, Europe: the prodigal continent. http://www.ywam.eu/resources/europe-the-prodigal-continent.

© 2010 Kimberly Padilla, A.A Religion