They continue to seek to find the sacred, which they do not always find in the church fence.
In general, the new African churches are looking for a new meaning of the traditional community in the rapidly changing socio-political context of the African continent.
At the same time, Europe, especially Western Europe, is losing its role as a „Christian bastion” – at least in the sense in which it was embedded until the nineteenth century. Parish civilization with a priest – a monopoly administrator of spiritual goods, with abundant monastic vocations, with the patron saint of the village and processions, statues and cult dedicated to him – this civilization no longer exists in most Western European countries. Sometimes priests, bishops, observers speak about it in alarming terms.
For example, Cardinal Joachim Meissner of Cologne notes that his diocese has never had as much money as in the last 40 years, but never before has the essence of faith been lost here as it has in these decades. The Archdiocese of Cologne has 2.8 million Catholics, he said, and the archdiocese has lost 300,000 people in the past 30 years. One baptism has three burials.
Against the background of such statements, the news of the triumphant march of Islam in Western Europe sounds even more alarming. Some popular publications even practice wit in this regard. One satirical weekly offers a „Farewell to Europe” tour, which offers to go on a farewell pilgrimage to the cities of the Islamic Republic of the Netherlands and Belgium this weekend before the borders of these countries are closed to infidels.
Indeed, the presence of Muslims in Western Europe is growing extremely fast, with Europe forming what can be called global Islam, Islam where ethnic differences are leveled and the main focus is on what is called „pure Islam” or „Wahhabism”.
Meanwhile, in some countries the successor of the parish civilization will become and, in fact, is already becoming a kind of ethical environment that offers a minimum set of common values. It is from this environment that manifestations of religiosity, in harmony with individualistic culture, emerge. It focuses on personal inquiry rather than on the passive repetition of orthodox truths after the church. The emphasis on personal spiritual experience and subjective emotional involvement is particularly evident in the Catholic charismatic renewal.
The situation is actually much more complicated and bizarre than it seems. Although absolutely all European studies record a decline in religious practices, Europeans have not become greedy atheists. They continue to seek to find the sacred, which they do not always find in the church fence. Parish civilization is also replaced by a situation marked by the presence of clear scissors between religious beliefs, a person’s need for spiritual experience and experiences – on the one hand, and the rapid decline in church attendance and participation in institutionalized religious activities. Grace Davy called such a state „faith without belonging” and this state should indicate the reduction of religion to the private sphere and the loss of its social significance.
Various studies suggest that, say, the British or Dutch were interested in various spiritual practices (individual meditations became quite popular in, for example, the Netherlands), that Europeans were interested in Eastern religions (there were only ten Europeans who believed in reincarnation) … percent less than those who believe in the resurrection – 22% vs. 33%), as well as to Eastern Christianity. and, at the same time, about their very significant loss of contact with the church. Triumphant individualism undermines the power of institutionalized churches to authoritarianly attribute the forms and content of religious beliefs – the individual constructs his own set of beliefs, of his own choice. This construction makes Europeans no less religious, but differently religious than the inhabitants of other continents.
The results of the European Values Study Program (EVS) show that Western Europeans are „non-church” rather than secular. 60% of Europeans report their paranormal experience, the exit of their souls from bodies, spirits and visions; the proportion of those who are somehow involved in alternative religious practices seems quite significant.
In short, Western Europeans did not become people for whom, according to Patriarch Kirill, everything was replaced by the stomach. At the same time, there are revival points of traditional Christian civilization in Europe, and there is less reason to predict complete de-Christianization in Europe than to say otherwise. Look: although we are talking about a reduction in church attendance, first, still more than half of Europeans, if you take the whole of Europe, more or less regularly attend Sunday services, 46% believe in heaven, and more than a third – in hell.
We are talking about a serious decrease in priestly vocations, but let us not forget that at the same time there has been an increase in deacons and catechists. We are talking about the fact that in some cities in Britain the suburbs have become completely Muslim, but at the same time in many cities Catholic churches in Britain do not accommodate everyone, because Sunday services are attended by Poles, who are more in Britain than Pakistanis.
Finally, the last two decades have been a golden age of Catholic pilgrimage – never before Jasna Góra and Lourdes, Assisi, Medjugorje, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela, Montserrat, Taizé. Be that as it may, 46% of Europeans believe in heaven and more than a third in hell. As one French sociologist put it, „if you are a person who buys stock and lives in Europe, then buy Christianity, its shares should go up.”
At the same time, it is in Europe that the desire to form a solidarity front against liberalism, relativism and the secular wave is becoming apparent, which is becoming an increasingly visible phenomenon. Spokesmen for the Moscow Patriarchate articulate this idea very clearly; apparently, to some extent, it is shared by Pope Benedict XVI.
Historian and journalist Robert Moinichen, who has had numerous conversations and interviews with Cardinal Ratzinger, is convinced that it is Pope Benedict XVI who seeks and is able to form a kind of conservative international that should stop human depopulation, ban relativism and pervasiveness. Moreover, according to R. Moynihen, it is the German origin of the pope that pushes him to this: „The phenomenon of the rise and fall of civilizations amazes him. As a German, he witnessed the rise and fall of one of the greatest powers and cultures in Europe – German culture. „
It is possible that the joint struggle within the proposed inter-Christian alliance (perhaps even institutionalized) with secularism may become a serious trend in religious and social development in the next decade. Meanwhile, such an alliance will not mean the rapprochement of Christians in the ecumenical perspective – that is, overcoming disunity and restoring Eucharistic unity. united by the perception of Christian disunity as a „scandal.”
A very important trend in Christianity, which cannot but find its development in the 21st century, is the pursuit of gender equality, which will further change the face of not only Protestant and Evangelical, but, over time, historical churches. Women already make up 10% of all clergy in the United States, 30% of students in theological schools are women; despite the strict ban on the female priesthood in the Catholic Church, most of the three hundred parishes that do not have a priest are run, in effect, by women.
There are only 1,000 congregations left in the Anglican Commonwealth that do not recognize the female priesthood. The trends here look like this. If in 1800 among the people who worked in Christian organizations, men were 89% and women – 11%, in 1900 – more than 90% and slightly less than 10%, respectively; 1970 – 67% and 33% respectively; 2000 – 60% and 40%; in 2007 – 59% and 41%.
The forecast for 2025 is 57% of men and 43% of women. The idea of a female priesthood no longer causes idiosyncrasy and instant rejection in the historical Churches; the question of why a woman cannot become a priest is one of the most discussed on Orthodox Internet forums. Finally, the issue of the female clergy sparked a discussion at the Conference of the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples and the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia in Bratislava entitled „The Role of Women in the Modern World: The Orthodox Approach „(2007). would be possible.
At the same time, we note that trends are not limited to updating. After all, the future of religion will always depend on its ability to be both traditional and forward-looking, to value and respect its heritage, but also to be able to transcend it. Therefore, we see next to the updates and a return to the old, buy comparative essay online seemingly completely forgotten forms. Such returns are unexpected, such as Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to „rehabilitate” the Latin Trent Mass with its strict observance and the priest’s address to the altar, not to the people.
The most notable, it seems, is not the very fact of the corresponding decree of the pontiff, but his broad support – both among Catholic intellectuals and among ordinary Catholics. That is, along with modern forms of church life, we see and will continue to see the revival of old liturgical forms, movements that will be formalized and realized as a „return to the origins” of mass pilgrimages, the spread of mystical, hesychastic , such as circles and seminars, growing popularity and miracles.
Undoubtedly, the situation of globalization means that these and other tendencies are reflected – complex and nonlinear – in Ukraine as well. Moreover, such a reflection is extremely specific and worthy of the most in-depth and comprehensive research. However, this should already be the topic of the next lecture.
03.01.2012
