In his provocative new book, Bad Religion: How we Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat
argues that heresy has always found a home in America. Our insistence on
religious freedom has always attracted sects and free thinkers who were not
accepted in places that had state churches, and a frontier mentality lent a
wild aspect to life that extended to personal beliefs and values. What has
changed in recent decades, Douthat says, is that the institutions and persons
who represent and seek to defend historic Christian orthodoxy have fallen out
of favor. No longer do they speak with cultural authority, and no longer is
orthodoxy viewed as an attractive option in a pluralized world.
In the process of his discussion, Douthat lists five
“proximate causes of Christianity’s decline” (p. 65-82). Though his examination
is far richer than my too-brief notes here—I recommend his book, as it will
make you think—Douthat’s list includes:
Political polarization. Though America’s
political process has always contained its share of rancor, the past few
decades have witnessed a sharp uptick. In the past, major religious voices have
commented on important issues facing society, but rarely in such a sharply
partisan manner as we see today in the public square
The sexual revolution. The invention of
the Pill and the embrace of casual sex have made orthodoxy’s teaching on
sexuality seem hopelessly outdated. Most Christians, lacking a robustly
biblical theology of the body meant their response has been primarily negative,
a judgmental imposition of law and rules at a time when religious authority is
deemed suspect by increasing numbers of people, believers and unbelievers alike.
Global perspective. As our world has
become increasingly pluralized, it has become increasingly difficult to defend
the exclusive claims of orthodox Christian faith. As the world has moved in
next door, the exotic nature of spirituality found in other traditions and world
religions have become available for experimentation and adoption.
The religious consequences of America’s
ever-growing wealth. The economic uncertainty we sense at present is a
novel experience, and long years of rising living standards, comfort, and
self-confidence have eaten away at the foundations of faith. Except for
personal salvation, many orthodox Christians would be hard pressed to identify
any area of life in which they actually “walk by faith.”
Class. As elite centers of higher
education turned from orthodoxy, the educated classes moving into leadership
positions in commerce, politics, the media, and education began to see
orthodoxy as primitive. Rather than needing to demonstrate it as false, it
increasingly can be dismissed with the cynicism of those who feel themselves
above and beyond such things.
Add all of these cultural influences together, Douthat
argues, and orthodox Christian faith rather quickly turned defensive and
reactive, appearing increasingly unattractive by the end of the 20th
century. Other commentators and scholars might come up with a slightly
different list, but I suspect theirs will need to include the cultural
upheavals represented in the social forces Douthat has identified.
I’d be very interested in hearing, in the Comments you
leave, what you think of Douthat’s list.
(In part two of this blog post, I’ll list a few things that seem
to me have added to the decline from inside the world of evangelical
Christianity.)
This entry was posted
at Monday, July 30, 2012
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Christian faith,
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