Challenges to Christianity Existence in the Past: the Enemies During the Crusades in the Middle Ages - Research Paper Example

 The twenty-first century, as the culmination of the modern period, is rife with social, political, technological and cultural upheavals, ushering in a new set of human values and perspectives in regard to how people view life, religion, God and his authority over their way of lives. In this paper, I will be exploring how the Scripture and the Authority of God achieved a diminished role in a world where freedom and selfishness rule as fuelled by a culture of individuality and materialism. Introduction: The Emergence of Man The twentieth century saw the birth of the individual and the emergence of modern politic of secular liberalism. These developments were offshoots of the modern society society, which has come to consider freedom of choice or autonomy as the most important value to which individuals should aspire. This ethos is a global phenomenon that is encouraged both by the polity and the market because it feeds on the consumerist culture that allows for more economic growth. Today, material abundance is seen as a modern right of citizenship and naturally, the freedom to acquire riches becomes a fundamental right for people. Technology and the media also facilitate this phenomenon. Television, for instance, provides us an opportunity to watch our selves and what we should aspire for. The result was that people as viewers start to live in a mirror like world wherein people are exposed to reflections of their fantasies and pictures of themselves as they would like to be, constantly seduced by the allure of a world where images rule and that satisfaction and contentment is achieved through the possession of material things. Then, there is the Internet – the factor that strengthened the condition of electronic idolatry as it offers people their wish and desire, customized, interactive exchanges with e-commerce marketers, pornographic Web studios, and anonymous chat rooms.1 The implication of the liberal ethos is significant for religion and in the how the authority of God and the Scripture is viewed in the twenty-first century. Hugo Englehardt summarized them into five influences: 1. It gives lexical priority to individual self-determination and autonomy insofar as actual free choice is compatible with a social democratic appreciation of the benefits of the market; 2. It is committed to state-realized social justice as the guarantee of the material and social bases for fair equality of opportunity; 3. It encourages liberalization from the past through the critical assessment of tradition, as well as public re-education in the emergent cosmopolitan and consumerist culture; 4. It frees from the supposedly old moral restraints by encouraging the pursuit of self-satisfaction as well as the fulfillment in a consumer economy that both evokes 5. It frees from transcendent or metaphysical commitments.2 An important dimension to the concepts of secular liberalism, consumerism, materialism, among other phrases coined to describe the highly individualistic twenty-first century humans, is the emphasis on reason. It offers us the capability to transcend people’s natural impulses, however, as obviously demonstrated by the consumerist society, reason becomes subject to abuse by the will-to-power. According to Harlan Beckley, it becomes an instrument for justifying egoism, especially in its collective manifestations.3 For example, the privileged classes formulate specious principles that are aimed justifying inequalities on the basis of superior contributions to society, moral superiority or peace and order. The kind of upbringing that our society has adopted made it difficult to choose a religious way of life. The modern individual, understood as an isolated negativity, will only support a negative notion of benefit.4 Militant Humanism Besides the rapid changes brought about consumerism, individualism, media and new technologies, there is another factor that challenges religion – militant humanism. This was founded by apocalyptic European thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. These personages repudiated not only the foundations of the Christian faith but also challenged the total religious picture of a universe created and maintained by an omniscient and transcendent Being. The idea that there is someone – a morally responsible providence – at work, intervening in human affairs when needed, forgiving sins and promising eternal happiness, is argued to be a myth and therefore must be stripped out of the human consciousness. As a result, for these thinkers, there are no benign moral intentions that could be found in the vast empty spaces of the natural universe. They have surmised and actively promulgated that the metaphysical instinct that lies at the root of all religion is prey to tragically mistaken illusions. Here, “the desire to transcend the natural and human world, our only world, is not only doomed to fail, it ought to fail so that humankind might finally learn to live at peace in a godless universe deliberately drained of religiously imposed purpose.”5 The likes of Nietzsche and Karl Marx have profound influence around world and that their philosophies are still in vogue today. Their interpretation of Christianity and religion in a purely naturalistic way have helped in inculcating into people’s mind the concept that religion is merely is merely illusory and ideological and that God is a creation of human beings and not the other way around. We also have Albert Einstein (1996) perspective, that the concept of God was the main source of conflict between science and religion. He argued that God was not a father, king or confidant and he was not a source of morality either. He stressed that “the foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority… lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.”6 Einstein instead advocated the demise of religion and in its stead he put forward the concept of ethical behavior that is ground on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs. Rodney Stark and William Bainbridge (1986) succinctly described the modern intellectuals’ perspective: At least since the Enlightenment, most Western intellectuals have anticipated the death of religion… The most illustrious figures in sociology, anthropology, and psychology have unanimously expressed confidence that their children, or surely their grandchildren, would live to see the dawn of a new era in which, to paraphrase Freud, the infantile illusions of religion would be outgrown.7 Militant humanism was responsible for the birth of the critical perspective in the secularization of religion. God’s Authority God’s authority is largely believed to be delegated to the ministry of the Christian churches. There are several Christian denominations around the world but, one way or another, they have exercised God’s authority over their respective adherents. These churches exercise God’s authority by carrying out activities that advances the word and will of God as established by Christ’s teachings. And so, for this paper, God’s authority will be viewed in the context of the Christian churches’ authority and rules in general. One need not delve into questions in regard to which church is the real church or whether God’s authority is or is not the same as God’s authority. The essential factor for this paper is that people sees the Church as an extension of God’s authority and therefore looks up to it for guidance and for the satisfaction of their religious needs. Following God’s authority is deemed to be the correct path. Religious teachings acknowledge that man was given his senses and rationality by God and therefore, it is only natural for men to follow the authority of his rational faculty. However, reason follows the authority of reflection, some of which are correct but some are also wrong. In this regard, following God’s authority is seen as the ultimate way in which men could be enlightened, know the truth and find salvation. With the emergence of the modern man, God’s authority is being assailed and, in fact diminished. The media and technology was able to replace religion as the source of sacramental needs of modern life. Hence, power over people is increasingly relegated to the people behind the media, the internet, the businesses that are able to intervene and shape people perspectives because of their consumerist drives. Part of the dramatic deterioration of the power that religion has over people today can be attributed to the Christian teaching itself. Unlike, the Jewish and the Islamic ethos, Christianity is more lenient to its flock. Christian theologians, for instance, viewed the covenant between God and man as unilateral, a matter of God’s grace and that this supposedly explains why God would relate to an imperfect humanity. Here, God assumed the role of paternal authority figure, taking responsibility for a world of humans who are unable to take responsibility of their own. Elazar demonstrated this by demonstrating the efficacy and discipline of Judaism with the concept of the Covenant, the basis of God’s relationship with the Hebrews: The solution of the Jewish sages who formulated their system at the same time as the Church fathers, was to see the covenant as a matter of reciprocity, making God the ultimate authority but completely dependent on his constituency. Everyone was to know the rules and all, including God, were to be dependent upon observing them. If promises were broken, the consequences were cruel indeed. 8 The idea of renewed Covenant became the central claim of Christianity.9 The New Testament became the foundation of the concept of God’s authority. Now, according to Shabbir Akhtar, the process of secularization began with the New Testament concession to Caesar.10 The Christian belief is that human authorities are legitimate and could be expressions of the authority of God himself. This theme is found in Paul and Peter’s sections in the Bible who have discussed and demonstrated the concept of civil authority in the context of God’s authority. Both of Paul and Peter’s argument to honor civil authority is anchored on Jesus Christ’s well-known statement, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt 22:21) that was given when queried about the validity of paying taxes. In a purely religious perspective, the authority of God and the scripture was outlined by Paul in his letters to the Colossians. Here, the point Paul made was that the supreme authority of our faith and life is in Jesus Christ and that he is supposed to be the most certain defense against what Paul referred to as the “empty deceit” and misleading “human tradition” because God is the head of every ruler and authority. These phrases has been the subject of several explanations that seek to define the relationship between the religious and the secular, science and faith, rationality and religious traditions. Nicholas Wright argued that Paul meant that in place of wisdom and knowledge that we possess, this philosophy offers only human tradition and the basic principles of this world. To quote: ‘Human tradition’, phrase picked up in 2:22, recalls the polemic of both Isaiah (29:13) and Jesus (Mk. 7:5ff) against the transformation of true, living religion into a set of ideas and rules handed on at a purely human level. This is not to say that there is a proper use of ‘tradition’ within Christianity, when Christ himself works by his Spirit to bring his truth to a new generation through the witness of the church.11 These previous discussions about human tradition does not in any way make any dent on how the New Testament provide for the legitimacy of the civil authority and secularism would grow in the faith particularly in recent years. The crucible of Christianity is said to be the aboriginal context of the secular insurrection against all traditional religion. For instance, Akhtar pointed out that it is the birth-place of what has now become a secular condition whose burden is felt worldwide: “The burden is not evenly distributed: it is still most influential in European lands historically associated with Christianity but the virus of aggressive secularism is contagious, carried by a western culture with global extension.”12 What makes secularization so attractive and so in tune with our values today is that it sets people free. Personal choice and responsibility enters the picture immediately when there is a breakdown of the ontocratic pattern by which religious norms govern the actions.13 The leniency of Christianity has a significant impact on the concept of sin. There is currently a thinning of this concept, among other religious ideals like salvation and that they are being diluted into nonreligious moral concepts like wrongdoing and happiness. This is happening because it suits the requirements of pluralistic and highly individualistic society. The consequence of the thinning of many religious concepts is that they increasingly become abstract ideas that become so unclear that they now fail to motivate people into practicing a religious way of life. In addition, these diluted concepts become subject to individual interpretations, to the point that they are now being tailored according to individual needs, purposes and actions. There are those who argue that there should be a return to tradition in regard to enforcing God’s authority. Indeed, the notion of popular will has gained ascendancy over religion and the Scripture and God’s authority as self-determination became a touchstone of legitimacy. Returning to tradition is being advocated and assessed by conservative members of the Christian church currently and assessed how well they fit the times, marked alternately by pressures for change, retention of the status quo and that whether it is at odds with countervailing modernizing pressures.14 The Scripture in the 21st Century The Scripture, although not without error in every detail, ideally holds very substantial authority, as it is the revelation of God’s will for people, particularly in regard to the life of Christ and concept of “salvation” which is the supposed ultimate aspiration for Christians. According to Caroline Miley, the Christian faith deem that the Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation, so that the Scripture is what one must start with and fall back on for guidance, authority and inspiration in Christian life.15 And so, for generations it became the most important moral code of behavior both for the individual and the society. In the Scripture, one finds many rules of worship and ritual, as well as a fundamental element idea that humans are created in the image and likeness of God. The Scripture’s Ten Commandments also outline the more detailed formulation of the relationship between God and individual as well as men’s relations with each other. These commandments, consisting of both prohibitions (against murder, theft, idolatry, etc.) and positive commands (for worship, honoring of parents, etc.) are part of the larger ethical commands of all civilizations.16 People who think that God is incompatible with science were surprised to find that scientists do not dispute god’s existence. A recent poll, for instance, reported the results of a survey that was first taken in 1916 and repeated in 1996 found that 40 per cent of American scientists had said that they believed in God. The figure was supposedly the same when the scientific community was queried with the same question in 1916. (Stannard 2000, p. 153) This is particularly interesting when the length of time and the scientific and technological developments would have made the number of scientists who believe in God fewer. Furthermore, in a news release by the Gallup organization emphasized the similarity of American attitudes toward religion in 1947 and 1997 wherein it was found that the continuity of American attitudes upon such basic beliefs is hard to reconcile with the boldest of the secularization theories.17 Somehow this shows that the current circumstance of religion is not entirely hopeless. While there have been some statistically significant changes in the way people view religion, God and the Scriptures, such social changes appear to be translated into some semblance of apocalypse for Christianity. A Test of Faith For some people, the dynamics and developments in the twenty-first century that significantly affects religion, is not something that theologians must be alarmed with. For instance, Cynthia Campbell wrote: Creation happened because God chose to create, because God willed to create… you discover that God never stopped creating… God keeps on working in God’s world, and God keeps working with people. Then it can occur to you that the God who created and keeps on creating could be creating in your life, rebuilding and repairing and renewing your life. So a truth from God revealed in the opening pages of the Genesis becomes a source of inspiration and new life for you right now. 18 In following this line of thinking – that God is presently still working his creations within us - an interesting insight was posited by Hunsberger. To quote: The de-sacrilizing of great areas of human life is all part of the journey by which God leads the world to the ultimate issue of faith or unbelief in Jesus Christ. This is the current form of the coming into history of the light by which all men are finally and personally exposed and judged. The results of Christ’s coming into the world are being worked out in this process which places all men in a critical situation, a situation charged with the possibilities both of ultimate salvation and ultimate loss; people are led right to the ultimate issue of absolute surrender or ultimate rejection.19 In this perspective, the twenty-first century developments outlined elsewhere in this paper which are radically changing Christianity and challenging God’s authority and those of the Scripture, is considered as a test to the faithful. That these developments are supposed to strengthen people’s relationship with God is a unique and refreshing perspective that could be used as an oportunity for the Christian churches to enlighten Christians. It is necessary to underscore that people of the Christian churches – those involved in the ministry of the Scripture and Jesus Christ’s teachings – must never lose their grip on the authority of the Scriptures. One finds in varying periods of history several examples that demonstrate misdirection and social waywardness as a result of losing the authority of the Scripture as a guide in leading the rightful path to a religious way of life. Michael Anthony and Warren S. Benson (2004) emphasized that the lessons of the past few centuries remind us that we are not new to this phenomenon and that “generations dating back to the children of Israel in the wilderness had a natural inclination toward independent thinking. By nature, man does not like to admit that he is inadequate in authority and influence.” 20 And so, the current period that is characterized by intense individualism, consumerism and outright challenge to God’s and the Scripture’s authority must be seen as a challenge to the leadership of the Christian churches and its people to turn the tide around. Conclusion Over the past two centuries, Christianity followed a steep decline from its original roots towards being a mere source of cultural continuity and identity. As has been established by this paper, this is particularly true in the twenty-first century wherein God’s authority is increasingly becoming irrelevant and now measured by indices such as ecclesiastical sovereignty over beliefs, morals and institutions such as marriage. The decline is due to some pitfalls in its teachings but mostly to the spectacular rise of economic motive. Prior to modernity and capitalism, time was measured in terms of the cycles of the risings and the settings of the sun. However, today, it is being scaled in terms of the working hours. The development of Western society in relation to Christianity started with the industrial period, which was known for its emphasis on hard work and productivity; and, the late capitalism, the period characterized by leisure and conspicuous consumption. Then, there’s the contribution of the militant humanism variable. The likes of Marx have made significant dents to religion and the concept of God in people’s minds. These intellectuals particularly claim a strong hold among the intellectuals today and in the liberal secularization that is permeating in Western societies. With the attack on God’s authority and the Scripture particularly by economic variables that are wantonly encouraged by the state, and the people with their penchance for consumption, there is a need for the Christian churches to be relevant lest they become sidelined and doomed to extinction. Again, one needs to look and learn from the lessons of history. Christianity has faced several challenges to its existence in the past such as the enemies during the Crusades in the Middle Ages, stagnation resulting from autocratic hierarchical church structures, however, it prevailed. The onslaught of humanistic philosophies that plague religion at present must be seen in this context. The Christian churches are not without its resources as well. It must be taken advantage of and utilized because there is a battle out there that must be dealt with and won. References Akhtar, Shabbir, “The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam,” (Routledge, 2007). Anthony, Michael and Benson, Warren, “Exploring the History & Philosophy of Christian Education: Principles for the 21st Century,” (Kregel Publications, 2004). Beckley, Harlan. “Passion for Justice: Retrieving the Legacies of Walter Rauschenbusch, John A. Ryan, and Reinhold Niebuhr.” (Westminster John Knox Pres, 1992) Boyer, Pelham and Wood, Robert, “Strategic Transformation and Naval Power in the 21st Century,” (DIANE Publishing, 2000). Campbell, Cynthia, “Renewing the Vision: Reformed Faith for the 21st Century,” (Westminster John Know Press, 2000). Cunningham, Lawrence and Reich, John, “Culture and values: a survey of the humanities,” (Cengage Learning, 2005). Einsten, albert, “Bite-size Einstein: quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century,” Jerry Mayer and John Holms (eds.), (St. Martin’s Press, 1996). Elazar, Daniel, “Covenant & polity in Biblical Israel: Biblical foundations & Jewish expressions,” (Transaction Publishers, 1998). Engelhardt, Hugo : The foundations of Christian bioethics,” (Taylor and Francis, 2000). Hunsberger, George, “Bearing the witness of the spirit: Lesslie Newbigin's theology of cultural plurality,” (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998). Miley, Caroline, “The suicidal church: can the Anglican Church be saved?” (Pluto Press Australia, 2002). Murnhall, Patricia, Madden, Ed, and Fitzsimons, Virginia. “The Emergence of Man Into the 21st Century: Edited by Patricia L. Munhall, Ed Madden, Virginia M. Fitzsimons,” (Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2002). Stark, Rodney and Bainbridge, William, “The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation,” (University of California Press, 1986) Underwood, Doug, “From Yahweh to Yahoo!: The Religious Roots of the Secular Press,” (University of Illinois Press, 2002) Walsh, Andrew, “Religion, economics, and public policy: ironies, tragedies, and absurdities of the contemporary culture wars,” (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000). Wright, Nicholas, “The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon: an introduction and commentary,” (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988). Read More