Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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leadership to an otherwise chaotic Europe. “In a sense the church continued the Roman
Empire; if Rome had lost imperial significance, it was still the seat of the Empire of
Christ, even when the Holy Roman Emperor sat elsewhere. The role of the Christian
church in maintaining and transmitting, in residual form, the cultural legacy of Rome
strengthened the conception” (Walls, 2002:37). Thus, it was that to be a member of the
church was to be part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. “In general, the context of
Christendom continued as the guarantor and protector of Christianity as the dominant
religious force in society” (Guder, 1998:114).
In something of an historical irony, the Protestant Reformation actually helped bring
about the disestablishment of Medieval Christendom. “The Reformation joined in this
process leading toward modern secularisation by questioning the authority and certainty
of Medieval Christian culture” (Guder, 1998:6). Following the Reformation, “the place
and power of the institutional churches within their societies have gradually diminished”
(ibid.). Guder continues, explaining how the European state rulers gradually gained
power over the Church. Thus, the progression from pagan Roman state rule, to Roman
Church rule, to secular state rule took place. In time, “the church was both protected and
managed for political purposes” (ibid. 7).
Many agree that Christendom proper really ended with the French Revolution, though
it has certainly died a slow, lingering death. Vestiges of Christendom remain today,
especially where it still legally exists (e.g., UK). During the revolutionary period in
Europe (c. late 18 th Century), people revolted against the privileged place of the church in
society, as well as the widespread corruption among clerics and aristocrats. In some
places, like France and Russia, the disestablishment of the church came quickly and
violently. In France, the separation of church and state c.1800, coupled with a hearty
Enlightenment climate, pushed their society toward strict separation of church and state.
“In the French case, a hard-edged secularism emerged and acquired a life of its own, with
state jurisdiction expanding to make religion subordinate” (Sanneh, 2003:9). Lamin
Sanneh adds that in France especially, secularism was ‘hard,’ versus the softer version
that later developed in the United States. Professor Walls adds that the “dissolution of
Christendom made possible a cultural diffusion of Christianity that is now in the process
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa