Postchristianity is the situation in whichChristianity is no longer the dominantcivil religion of a society but has gradually assumedvalues,culture, andworldviews that are not necessarilyChristian. Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity'smonopoly in historically Christian societies toatheism orsecularism.[1] It does not include formerly Christian societies that now mostly follow other religions likeIslam, such as parts of theBalkans and theMiddle East.
Historically, the majority of Christians have lived inWestern nations, once calledChristendom, and often conceptualized as"European Christian" civilization.[2]
A post-Christian society is one in whichChristianity is no longer the dominantcivil religion but that has gradually assumedvalues,culture, andworldviews that are not necessarily Christian (and also may not necessarily reflect any world religion's standpoint or may represent a combination of either several religions or none). Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity'smonopoly, if not its followers, in historically Christian societies.[3] Post-Christian societies are found across theGlobal North/West: for example, though the 2005Eurobarometer survey indicated that the majority of Europeans hold some form of belief in ahigher power (see also "ietsism"); fewer point explicitly to theChristian God.
Despite this decline, Christianity remains the dominantreligion in Europe, the Americas and Oceania. According to a 2010 study by thePew Research Center, 76% of thepopulation of Europe,[4] 77% of North America and 90% of Latin America and the Caribbean identified themselves asChristians.[5] According to Scholars, in 2017, Europe's population was 77.8% Christian (up from 74.9% 1970),[6][7] these changes were largely result of thecollapse of Communism andswitching to Christianity in the former Soviet Union andEastern Bloc countries.[6]
In his 1961 bookThe Death of God, the French theologianGabriel Vahanian argued that modern secular culture in most ofWestern civilization had lost all sense of thesacred, lacked anysacramental meaning, and disdained anytranscendental purpose or sense ofprovidence, bringing him to the conclusion that for the modern mind, "God is dead".Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton ofEmory University drew upon a variety of sources, including theaphorisms ofDietrich Bonhoeffer'sLetters and Papers from Prison, and brought this line of thought to public attention in a short-lived intellectual movement of the mid-to-late-1960s amongProtestant theologians and ministerial students.
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Postchristianity[8] is the loss of the primacy of the Christian worldview in public affairs, especially in theWestern world whereChristianity had previously flourished, in favor of alternative worldviews such assecularism,[9]nationalism,[10]environmentalism,[11]neopaganism,[12] and organized (sometimesmilitant[13]) atheism;[14] as well as other ideologies that are no longer necessarily rooted in the language and assumptions of Christianity. They previously existed in an environment of ubiquitous Christianity (i.e.Christendom).[clarification needed][15][16][17][18]
Other scholars have disputed the global decline of Christianity, and instead hypothesized of an evolution of Christianity which allows it to not only survive, but actively expand its influence in contemporary societies.[19][20][21]
Philip Jenkins hypothesized a "Christian Revolution" in theGlobal South, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, where instead of facing decline, Christianity is actively expanding. The susceptibility to Christian teachings in the Global South will allow the Christian population in these areas to continually increase, and together with the shrinking of the Western Christian population, will form a "new Christendom" in which the majority of the world's Christian population can be found in the South.[22]
Charles Taylor, meanwhile, disputes the "God is dead" thesis by arguing that the practices and understandings of faith changed long before the late 20th century, along with secularism itself. InA Secular Age Taylor argues that being "free from Christendom" has allowed Christianity to endure and express itself in various ways, particularly in Western society; he notes that otherwise secular ideas were, and continue to be, formed in light of some manner of faith. He stresses that "loss of faith" reflects simplistic notions on the nature ofsecularization, namely the idea of "subtraction." Thus "post-Christian" is, after a fashion, a product of Christianity itself.[citation needed]
John Micklethwait andAdrian Wooldridge wroteGod Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World, claiming that there is a globalrevival of faith that started in the late twentieth century.
Some American Christians (primarily Protestants) also use this term in reference to theevangelism ofunchurched individuals who may have grown up in a non-Christian culture where traditionalBiblical references may be unfamiliar concepts.[citation needed] This perspective argues that, among previous generations in the United States, such concepts and other artifacts ofChristianese would have been common cultural knowledge and that it would not have been necessary to teach this language to adultconverts to Christianity. In this sense,post-Christian is not used pejoratively, but is intended to describe the special remediative care that would be needed to introduce new Christians to the nuances of Christian life and practice.[citation needed]
Some groups use the termpost-Christian as a self-description.Dana McLean Greeley, the first president of theUnitarian Universalist Association, describedUnitarian Universalism as postchristian, insofar as Christians no longer considered it Christian, while persons of other religions would likely describe it as Christian, at least historically.[23]
New religious movements such asJesuism incorporate foundational elements ofChristian thought in syncretic combination with variousenlightenment beliefs (i.e. secular democracy, equality of historical minorities) into a coherent post-Christiantheology.[24]
