Which of the world's largest faiths, Christianity or Islam,
is experiencing the greater ideological reassertion and demographic surge?
Surely "Islam" is nearly everyone's answer. As American Christians
experiment with ever-milder versions of their faith, Muslims display a fervor
for extreme interpretations of Islam. As Europe suffers the lowest population
growth rates ever recorded, Muslim countries have some of the highest.
But Islam is the wrong answer, argues Philip Jenkins in a recent "Atlantic
Monthly." He shows how Christianity is the religion currently undergoing
the most basic rethinking and the largest increase in adherents. He makes a
good case for its militancy most affecting the next century.
"For obvious reasons," notes this professor of history and religious
studies at Pennsylvania State University, "news reports today are filled
with material about the influence of a resurgent and sometimes angry Islam. But
in its variety and vitality, in its global reach, in its association with the
world's fastest-growing societies, in its shifting centers of gravity, in the
way its values and practices vary from place to place - in these and other ways
it is Christianity that will leave the deepest mark on the twenty-first
century."
What Jenkins dubs the "Christian revolution" is so little noted
because Christians divide into two very different regions -- North (Europe,
North America, Australia) and South (South America, Africa, Asia) -- and we who
live in the North only dimly perceive the momentous developments underway in
the South. Fortunately, Jenkins is there to guide us.
Faith: The changes in the South "run utterly contrary" to
those in the liberalizing North, where religious beliefs and practices are ever
more removed from traditional Christianity. In the South, Protestant movements
are mainly Evangelical or Pentecostal, while Roman Catholicism takes an
orthodox cast. By Northern lights, the South's theology and moral teaching are
"stalwartly traditional or even reactionary," what with their respect
for the power of priests, their notions of spiritual charisma, their aspiration
to direct spiritual revelation, their efforts to exorcise demonic forces, and
their goal of re-creating a version of early Christianity. As "Southern
Christians are reading the New Testament and taking it very seriously,"
increasing tensions then develop with the liberal Northerners.
Demographics: "Christians are facing a shrinking population in the
liberal West and a growing majority of the traditional Rest. During the past
half century the critical centers of the Christian world have moved decisively
to Africa, to Latin America, and to Asia. The balance will never shift
back." The numbers are jaw-dropping: Nigeria already has more practicing
Anglicans than any other country, with Uganda not far behind. The Philippines
has more baptisms per year than France, Spain, Italy, and Poland together. By
2025, two thirds of all Christians (and three quarters of all Catholics) are
expected to live in the South. (These numbers actually underestimate the
contrast in growth rates, for many Southern Christians are relocating to the
North. In London today, for example, half of all churchgoers are blacks.) If
present trends continue, by 2050 the proportion of non-Latino whites among the
world's Christians will fall to about one in five.
Of course, the chasm between North and South is not complete (a fact that
Jenkins hardly touches on); the United States, for example, contains
substantial numbers of Christians with a 'Southern" outlook. This said,
the trends are clear:
* Although Islam may appear to be the faith of choice for the world's poor,
Christianity is faring at least as well among them.
* Christianity is no longer predominantly a European and North American faith.
* The experimentation and decline that pervades Northern Christianity is less
important than it appears.
* The concept of Christendom may re-emerge in the South, where political,
social, and personal identities are being primarily defined by religious
loyalties.
* "An enormous rift seems inevitable" between North and South,
possibly leading to a split in the Christian church, similar to what happened
centuries ago between the Catholic Church and the Protestant movements.
* Christianity and Islam are on a collision course, competing for converts and
influence. Some countries "might be brought to ruin by the clash of jihad
and crusade."
To understand the future of Christianity, then, keep your eye on those Southern
believers who reject the North's liberal outlook and who increasingly dominate
the faith.