Time Magazine reports: A religious revolution is transforming Indonesia. Part of the spiritual blossoming entails Muslims embracing a more conservative form of faith, mirroring global trends that have meant a proliferation of headscarves and beards in modern Islamic capitals. More surprising, though, is the boom in Christianity — officially Indonesia’s second largest faith and a [...]
Tag Archives: Christianity
American church decline or not?
30 March, 2008 – 12:36 PM
We all know that Christianity is in decline in the West evidenced by plummeting church attendances. Or is it? It certainly is true in Britain, Continental Europe and Australia It is not true in the United States. A study by Stanley Presser of the University of Maryland and Mark Chaves of Duke University has found [...]
What is to be done about Europe?
21 June, 2007 – 5:31 AM
map So what is to be done about Europe? Philip Jenkins’ God’s Continent has reminded us that Europe stands at a crossroad. Christianity is in serious and sustained decline. Secuarlism dominates and Islam is on the rise. My thoughts, from a movements perspective, on what is to be done. 1. Reality Therapy I’ll pick up [...]
Despair over Europe
19 June, 2007 – 11:05 PM
No apologies for such a long quote from Philip Jenkins and the future of European Christianity. It’s just too good to edit. Read it carefully, especially the last two paragraphs. Jenkins understands the vital role that movements play in the renew and expansion of the Christian faith. The recent despair over the fate of God’s [...]
A missionary faith
1 June, 2007 – 11:52 PM
I’m continuing my journey through Eckhard Schnabel’s study of Early Christian Mission. He describes how Christianity from its beginnings has been a missionary movement with a drive for expansion. The early Church endeavored, with fearless commitment and sacrificial courage, to win other people to their convictions. Schnable defines “mission” or “missions” as: The activity of [...]
Fighting porn
27 May, 2007 – 11:46 PM
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery — Paul Gustave Doré, 1865 According to the Age a record numbers of Australians—assume this is true for Americans, Chinese, Nigerians, Estonians ie human beings on the planet—are visiting pornographic websites on the internet, including sexually explicit dating sites. We all know it’s a man’s problem but now [...]
The new faces of Christianity
22 May, 2007 – 11:32 PM
Make sure you read Joel Carpenter’s article on Philip Jenkin’s New Faces of Christianity. A passionate, biblical faith is winning the day in the global South and making its way to the global North. A recently rediscovered religious text is making huge waves in the world today. With stunning power, it is driving the largest [...]
Europe: It’s not all bad news
10 May, 2007 – 5:51 PM
Last post we looked at the expansion of Christianity in Africa and the corresponding decline in Europe. I took the photo above in 1998. It’s a Englishman born C of E, preaching Islam at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. But according to historian Philip Jenkins it’s not all bad news in Europe. I read everything [...]
God of courage
19 March, 2007 – 4:13 AM
Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy
GK Chesterton: Courage
27 May, 2006 – 10:55 PM
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It [...]
