Post-Christendom, Post-Constantinian, Post-Christian … Does the Label Matter?

Abstract

The demise of Christendom is of fundamental significance in understanding the present and future relationship between the churches and European culture. Attempts to develop post-Christendom perspectives are hindered by linguistic and conceptual confusion. This article explores misleading implications of the terms ‘post-Constantinian’ and ‘post-Christian’ and argues for the consistent use of the term ‘post-Christendom’. Use of the terms ‘Christendom’ and ‘post-Christendom’ has been criticised for failing to differentiate between different kinds of Church–state partnerships, some of which may be less problematic than others. This article acknowledges such historical differences but argues that there is an underlying ideological unity susceptible of being described and investigated under these labels. It argues further that attempts to promote a benign expression of Christendom as a possible future for Europe are unwise. It summarises the transitions occurring as Europe journeys beyond Christendom and argues for creative engagement with post-Christendom as an opportunity for ecclesial renewal.

Keywords:

• post-Christendom
• European Union
• European constitutional treaty
• secularisation
• multi-religious society
• church-state partnerships
• Anabaptist Network
• Ecclesial renewal

Notes

¹Davie, Europe.

²See further Jenkins, God's Continent.

³ International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 6, no. 1 (2006).

⁴See http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com.

⁵Murray, Post-Christendom; Murray, Church after Christendom; Bartley, Faith and Politics after Christendom; Pimlott, Youth Work after Christendom; further books forthcoming.

⁶Murray, Post-Christendom, 19.

⁷Ibid., 20.

⁸This appears to be the approach of Mead, The Once and Future Church, and Jackson, Hope for the Church.

⁹A recent example is Robinson, Planting Mission-shaped Churches Today.

¹⁰As in Jenkins, The Next Christendom.

¹¹Nigel Wright, Free Church, 272–4.

¹²Ibid., 273.

¹³Ibid., 274.

¹⁴The extent to which the US is moving towards, or is already in the throes of, post-Christendom is widely debated. Some argue it will be an exception; others that it will follow the pattern of other Western societies.

¹⁵See, for example, Newbigin, The Gospel as Public Truth and Truth to Tell.

¹⁶See Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture, which exposes the serious flaws in H. Richard Niebuhr's famous typology of Christian social involvement and challenges the widespread perception that Anabaptism inevitably advocates or results in withdrawal from society.

¹⁷See Murray, Post-Christendom, 23–46, 74–108.

¹⁸Maybe, in fact, the situation Nigel Wright envisages and labels ‘non-Constantinian Christendom’!

¹⁹See Augustine's The City of God.

²⁰W.H.C. Frend, The Early Church, 198.

²¹Kreider, The Change of Conversion, 55. For a study of the outworking of this in Northern Ireland, see Liechty and Clegg, Moving Beyond Sectarianism.

²²Kreider, The Change of Conversion, 55, 72–3.

²³Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom, 136; Kreider, The Change of Conversion, 57, 64.

²⁴David Wright, ‘Augustine and the Transformation of Baptism’.

²⁵A classic study of this subject and Augustine's influence is Bainton, Christian Attitudes towards War and Peace.

²⁶Hauerwas, After Christendom?, 18.

²⁷Bonino, Towards a Christian Political Ethics, 83.

²⁸Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 224.

²⁹Yoder, ‘Orientation in Midstream’, 163.

³⁰Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom, 142–3.

³¹Swartley, ‘Liberation Theology’, 70.

³²Yoder, ‘Orientation in Midstream’, 163.

³³See further Wessels, Was Europe Ever Christian?