Hello.
I’m observing Christianity and looking at the past history of it, recent and more distant, I can see Christian religious institutions across the board are waning. The traditional values are decaying, the strength of faith is crumpling. The most affected are the young generation, which is especially aided by the digital world of gadgets and the Internet (yes, I’m typing it on my device screen
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What I see as the baseline of the problem is anything real is disappearing, and only profiteering is remaining. This shocks me as it comes in a stark contrast with the essence of Jesus Christ’s teaching, love. Instead of emanating and teaching love, Christianity became introverted and utilitarian.
If you agree with me, what is the solution? What Christian spiritual leaders are to do to improve it and return to the roots? Considering that faith cannot be forced upon anybody in any way, it must be nourished gently and grow within people organically.
Or if you disagree that Christianity is on the decline, why?
I think your observations are quite accurate. Though I would go further. I would argue that much of Christianity in America has lost its soul because it has sold itself over to what Lutherans call the "Theology of Glory".
I know not everyone is into nitty-gritty theological details; but I do think it is helpful to explain what I'm talking about when I say "Theology of Glory" and why I believe it is not just a serious problem today, but I would argue it is the problem; the underlying root of the matter.
Lutheran theology speaks of two "Theologies", one is bad and false (Theology of Glory) and one is good and true (Theology of the Cross).
The short of it is that the Theology of Glory tries to find God in glory, power, wisdom, strength, good works, etc. The Theology of the Cross, on the other hand, says that God finds us in the weakness, suffering, and humility of Jesus Christ who was crucified.
Note the contrasts. The Theology of Glory is about framing everything as man going to God, God in His power, wisdom, etc and on the basis of man's own efforts, will, strength, works, etc. The Theology of the Cross is about framing everything as God coming to man, God in His weakness, His humility, His suffering, and His Cross.
The Theology of Glory tries to seek God behind the invisible veil of His power and majesty.
The Theology of the Cross says that God shows Himself to us in the flesh and bones of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Take a sampling of popular Christian worship music over the last hundred years, pay attention to the language of the lyrics, notice a trend? Listen to what preachers broadcast from their pulpits, or on television sets all across America. Notice a trend?
How does this play out when it comes to the intersection of church, society, culture, and government? Just look at how often one comes across rhetoric about having a godly nation, that America is a special nation blessed by God and America needs to "get right with God" or else God is going to do something really really bad.
Again, listen to what's being said, and how it's being said. It's Theology of Glory. It always comes down to man finding God in commandment keeping.
And because the Theology of Glory can only ever produce arrogance or despair, guess what happens when people burn out on despair? Or when people can no longer keep up the farce of their arrogance? Or, what happens when people can thoroughly convince themselves of their own self-righteousness, so much so that they think they can go around telling everyone else how much their poop stinks.
The Theology of Glory breeds corruption. It was what Martin Luther identified as the source of the problem in the Western Church of his own day. Five hundred years later, in the US, the face of the institution(s) which teach (and profit) from the Theology of Glory may be different. It's not bishop-princes in the Holy Roman Empire, but guys in suit and ties, or in tshirts and jeans going up on Sunday morning telling hundreds of thousands in their congregations that the point of Christianity is to have a personal relationship to God by having a profound mystical encounter with God, and then spending the rest of their lives slowly improving themselves morally. They talk about holiness codes, and about things like "purity", they are exceedingly "moral", in fact they'll be more than happy to tell you about all the really important rules you have to follow about what to listen for music, or what to watch on television, or what clothes women should wear to be "modest", etc etc. After all, being holy is not watching a rated R movie that contains female presenting nipples; as opposed to, say, making sure that your neighbor is well fed.
And that's how Theology of Glory can, once again, puff people up. Like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee boasts that he is not like "all those other sinners there, especially that tax-collector". He tithes properly, he does his religious duties. He has the right religion, worships the right God.
So, again, I agree with your observations. But I would go a lot further.
-CryptoLutheran
