Christendom is Dead - Long Live Christianity

[Pathfinder627]

A lot of people express anxiety about the "age of Christendom" no longer having cultural currency or power in the world. These are usually just Western fetishists.. "cultural Christians", so to speak. Sometimes they are outright racists who use Crusader memes with "Deus Vult" written on them. But I'll grant that some have sincere worries about the state of Western culture. Secularism has indeed taken over Western culture and we need to stand up to it. I just don't think Christendom is the answer.

Right now, I want to focus on ourselves. I think this is a good chance to clean up our own household, for now. There are a lot of aspects of "Christendom" that are embarrassing and should have never been part of the Church to begin with. Quite a bit of the pomp and clerical structure especially. Our holiday traditions are another example: English speakers need to start getting in step with our Greek and Latin speaking brothers and start calling "Easter" what it really is: Pascha. Easter is a loanword from Eostre, a Germanic pagan fertility goddess. It's pretty appalling that "Christendom" has gone as long as it has (in the Germanic speaking world, that is) with associating our Lord's death and resurrection to some ancient fertility goddess. Trash it!

Same goes with Christmas. Jesus wasn't even born in December. We should reset Advent to this current season we're in right now (early September/October). We should strip all pagan loanwords and "loan holidays" out of the Church completely. We need to incorporate more biblical based practices, and learn from our Jewish/Messianic brothers if we're going to celebrate any holidays at all. If I had the power, we'd get rid of all month and day names too, but I'm not sure that's feasible. Saturday = "Saturn's Day" , Thursday = "Thor's Day", March = "the month of Mars", June = "the month of Juno", etc. All of it needs to be tossed.

There's more to be said here. We could go on and on about parts of Christendom holding us back. I just mentioned in another thread about the false story of Mary Magdalene being the adulteress who was nearly stoned. The scriptures don't say this at all. She was rescued from demonic possession. This is another false tradition of Christendom (one started by Pope Gregory apparently), but not Christianity.

 

[Pathfinder627]

One more falsehood that is perpetuated by historical "Christendom" and needs to be trashed:

"Cessationism".

There is no scriptural support for it. Yet it's pushed as some eternal truth, on the level of the doctrine of the Trinity. All I see are people justifying their own lack of experience and projecting it on to others.

Any others? Society is undergoing a lot of "re-imagining" of itself as we speak. The Church should be doing the same.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

I think you're basing this reasoning on a false dichotomy. As if Christianity and Christendom were two separate and distinct ideologies, instead of being one and the same thing. Christendom simply being used to describe those Christian societies and nations and people that adhered to a Nicene Orthodoxy. To the extent that it includes multiple churches in it's umbrella, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic and even Protestantism. These are all distinct theologically but they have similar moral visions and ideas of converting as many people as possible to the faith. I would prefer the entirety of Africa be Protestant rather than Sunni Muslim or adhere to traditional African religion.

Part of your premise is also wrong. Easter itself has no connection to Paganism. We've discussed this many times on the forum but you cannot find a single pre-christian holiday that held the Sunday after the vernal equinox as a sacred day. Simply doesn't exist and the etymology for the English word Easter has no effect on the holiday itself which predates the English word for it. Early Greek speaking Christians called it Pascha and most non-English countries still call it some variant thereof. The term itself shouldn't matter but people have bought into this myth which has been circulated to delegitimize a Christian institution of celebrating the Lord's resurrection. It's this sort of thing that weakens Christianity and contributes to the weakening of Christendom in the west.

To me the problem isn't Christendom but our lack of enthusiasm in carrying it on to future generations. Christians should cherish their past, learn from it and seek to do better.

 

[Pathfinder627]

I think you're basing this reasoning on a false dichotomy. As if Christianity and Christendom were two separate and distinct ideologies, instead of being one and the same thing. Christendom simply being used to describe those Christian societies and nations and people that adhered to a Nicene Orthodoxy. To the extent that it includes multiple churches in it's umbrella, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic and even Protestantism. These are all distinct theologically but they have similar moral visions and ideas of converting as many people as possible to the faith. I would prefer the entirety of Africa be Protestant rather than Sunni Muslim or adhere to traditional African religion.

Part of your premise is also wrong. Easter itself has no connection to Paganism. We've discussed this many times on the forum but you cannot find a single pre-christian holiday that held the Sunday after the vernal equinox as a sacred day. Simply doesn't exist and the etymology for the English word Easter has no effect on the holiday itself which predates the English word for it. Early Greek speaking Christians called it Pascha and most non-English countries still call it some variant thereof. The term itself shouldn't matter but people have bought into this myth which has been circulated to delegitimize a Christian institution of celebrating the Lord's resurrection. It's this sort of thing that weakens Christianity and contributes to the weakening of Christendom in the west.

To me the problem isn't Christendom but our lack of enthusiasm in carrying it on to future generations. Christians should cherish their past, learn from it and seek to do better.

I didn't say celebrating Holy Week itself was an issue. And yes, the word matters. I don't know why an Orthodox would dispute this. You all say Pascha for the most part as well. I'd rather that people adopt your habits in English, rather than you adopt ours.

And no, Christianity and Christendom have nothing to do with each other. Christendom has little to do with theology at all. That's the whole point on why I made the thread. To only uphold theological truths.

Speaking of Catholics and Orthodox though, I can thank them for things like Constantine. And other kings and emperors like him who said Jesus told them to kill people. What a joke. This is another aspect of Christendom that needs to go. Why you all made Constantine a saint is beyond me. I definitely admire Helena, but even she partly made her pilgrimage to the Holy Land out of repentance for her son's wickedness (after he executed his son and wife). She should have been held up as the real Champion in the imperial family, and not him. He deserves to be forgotten.

 

[public hermit]

A lot of people express anxiety about the "age of Christendom" no longer having cultural currency or power in the world.

Dominionism? I agree that the fear is over losing cultural currency and political power. I don't understand it, to be honest. But it's a real fear, especially for many Americans. I think many American Christians are going through an identity crisis. Or, at least, I hope they are, haha. There has to be a reckoning and a discovery that one's political allegiance is not the same as one's allegiance to Christ. Of course, for too many, politics has become their religion. To be honest, I'm very hopeful. I think the identification of country/political party and faith is being challenged in significant ways. It's going to be painful, but the outcome will be good. When it's all said and done, the only Christians left will be the ones who truly are, I think. As the quantity of Christians goes down, the quality of Christian goes up. Once the quality goes up, it becomes attractive again to those who are willing to make it their life.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

G.K. CHESTERTON: THE EVERLASTING MAN

Chesterton said it best in his Five Deaths of the Faith. Christianity has 'died' before, only for the truth to shine through in later generations. Besides, Christianity is a religion built around Suffering, on God's suffering for us. It is best understood not from the perspective of the Emperor, but of the slave; not from the Poet Laureate, but from the persecuted. For as they persecuted Me, so will they persecute you. The wheat and the tares are not easily distinguished, so perhaps sometimes the field needs to be plowed, so that the tares fall away.

 

[tz620q]

G.K. CHESTERTON: THE EVERLASTING MAN

Chesterton said it best in his Five Deaths of the Faith. Christianity has 'died' before, only for the truth to shine through in later generations. Besides, Christianity is a religion built around Suffering, on God's suffering for us. It is best understood not from the perspective of the Emperor, but of the slave; not from the Poet Laureate, but from the persecuted. For as they persecuted Me, so will they persecute you. The wheat and the tares are not easily distinguished, so perhaps sometimes the field needs to be plowed, so that the tares fall away.

Just noticed that EWTN has one of my favorite shows back on. It is called "G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense". If you like Chesterton's wry wit and incisive way of getting to the heart of the matter, it is a good show.

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

All I see are people justifying their own lack of experience and projecting it on to others.

Or are they are weighing the claims of "experience" against God's Word and finding it wanting? Occultists have "experience". They should be tried the same way. Scripture!