Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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Chapter VI
Postmodernity and the Decline of Western Christianity
The decline of Christianity in the West is obvious to even the casual observer, but the
reasons for it are not nearly as obvious. The reasons are partly attributable to a cultural
phenomenon known as the disestablishment of Christianity, or Post-Christendom as some
call it. Post-Christendom is a cultural dynamic distinct from postmodernity, but one that
continues to work conjointly with postmodernity making significant changes in Western
culture, and in Western Christianity. Though the two cultural dynamics are separate and
distinct, postmodernity has, without question, complemented modernity in amplifying the
disestablishment of Christianity.
Like postmodernity, assessments concerning the disestablishment of Christianity run
the gamut. For some it is the worst thing that has ever happened to the faith, for others
the best. In this section, it is as much my purpose to consider the oft confused
relationship between the cultural dynamics of postmodernity and Christian
disestablishment, as well as to differentiate them, so that their impact individually and
together might be better understood -- as much as that is possible.
Standing in stark contrast to the phenomenal growth of the faith in the non-Western
world, is the ongoing decline of the faith in the West. Even in the United States, the last
bastion of vital Western Christianity, the faith continues to change. As Philip Jenkins,
Alister E. McGrath, Lamin Sanneh and others have noted, Christianity has changed
profoundly over the past one hundred years. No longer is the faith inextricably European.
The largest communities of Christians are now found in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The contemporary stereotypic Christian is more likely Chinese, Nigerian, or Brazilian.
By all projections, the size of the church in the non-West will only keep getting larger,
while the church in the West keeps getting smaller. Despite this, the Western church is
still by far the wealthiest, but also in large part, the most Liberal and arrogant.
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa