More bad news from Europe
When the Soviet Union collapsed, some academics spoke confidently of the End of History, the final resolution of ideological conflicts. Democratic capitalism had won, globally. Less then twenty years later, it seems, not only are rival ideologies once more locked in seemingly permanent struggle, but just as in the Cold War, Europe again represents a critical theater for rivalry—this time between competing forms of religious belief, between and among Christianity, Islam, and secularism. New specters are haunting Europe.How prepared is the church in Europe to face this challenge? Here’s the bad news according to Jenkins:
In some Muslim countries around 90% of people declare religion plays a very important role in their lives. In the US the figure in 2002 was 60%. In Europe the figure is just 21%.
Between 1973-1994 the proportion of French people claiming no religion grew from 11% to 34%.
In 1957, 71% of British respondents declared that Jesus was the Son of God. By 2001 the figure had fallen to 38%.
Asked whether Jesus ever lived, only 54% of Britons aged 18-24 agreed.
In 2005 the English Church Census reported that since 1998, half a million people stopped attending church.
In Germany, the Evangelical Church, which includes most Protestants, has lost half its membership in the last fifty years.
Over 60% of Czechs identify as atheists, compared to just 19% who believe in God.
In 2004, just fifteen men were ordained as priest in whole of Ireland. In western Europe the Catholic church has one tenth the number of seminarians it had forty years ago. In western Europe, the typical priest is in his sixties or seventies.
Remember the Belgian “singing nun” back in the sixties? She left her order and probably lived in a lesbian relationship until she and her partner committed suicide in 1985.
“God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis” (Philip Jenkins)
