This post reminds me of some thoughts that I used to have about CS Lewis vs. modern Christians in America.
CS Lewis was fighting for Christianity in a Britain that was moving away from it. It was a slow losing battle there. But in America, Christianity was still strong, and had decades of cultural hegemony to come. And CS Lewis gained the most popularity and influence in America.
I wonder whether African Christians look to the West, follow our debates, and borrow our talking points. Or will. Will Western apologists keep slowly losing here, but gain a legacy of persuasion in Africa?
I wonder too! It’s very hard to get a sense of things, especially when people who do write the odd piece about African Christianity usually have an agenda of their own. They cherry pick the thing they most want to see, whether it’s “down with capitalism” or “curse the Western libertines, we won’t let that happen to us.”
Jenkins himself is still alive and working. Should probably take the time to look at his newer work!
One irony here is that Western Christians despairing about the culture war could have vast numbers of allies if only they let them in! Africa has lots of Christian social conservatives who would pour into the West if they were allowed.
Yes, geopolitics and policy and religion often overlap oddly. The Trumpians briefly get excited about conquering Canada, even though a massive influx of Canadians would be a disaster for them electorally, but it’s people on the left, not the right, that (at least ostensibly) want to admit a lot of African immigrants even though they’d align much better with religious conservatives (at least on the moral questions).
Of course, modern politics is so intensely performative, people probably don’t know themselves much of the time what they really want.
A dynamic of modernization I’ve always wondered about is whether Christianity’s manifest virtues at consolation and providing meaning under the circumstances of life which obtained universally for, well, ever are considerably compromised under the increased comfort, safety, life expectancy, and wealth that are increasingly prevalent across the globe over the last couple hundred years. The Christian order in the “developed” world seems to have been much more fragile under shocks like the World Wars.
There are surely intellectual as well as material causes, as well, but if the faith has been nonpareil at providing the poor and sick with meaning (to the point of Nietzsche’s transvaluation of values), what happens when the world gets rich and healthy?
I don’t know that this is the case, but were it so, the health of African Christianity might be a lagging indicator, and its enrichment (which is happening) may bring them the same woes the wealthy world has. In which case, it would be nice if we had figured out some lessons to impart to them when they hit the same shoals.
(I suspect Vatican II was a bit of an attempt to grasp the intellectual side of this nettle, and on paper may have worked, but in practice ended up a disaster, obviously.)
This is pretty much exactly what I wonder about/suspect. Of course there will be some differences between cultures but I think prosperity, technology, and greater exposure to Western ideas will inevitably raise some of the same challenges.
This post reminds me of some thoughts that I used to have about CS Lewis vs. modern Christians in America.
CS Lewis was fighting for Christianity in a Britain that was moving away from it. It was a slow losing battle there. But in America, Christianity was still strong, and had decades of cultural hegemony to come. And CS Lewis gained the most popularity and influence in America.
I wonder whether African Christians look to the West, follow our debates, and borrow our talking points. Or will. Will Western apologists keep slowly losing here, but gain a legacy of persuasion in Africa?
I wonder too! It’s very hard to get a sense of things, especially when people who do write the odd piece about African Christianity usually have an agenda of their own. They cherry pick the thing they most want to see, whether it’s “down with capitalism” or “curse the Western libertines, we won’t let that happen to us.”
Jenkins himself is still alive and working. Should probably take the time to look at his newer work!
One irony here is that Western Christians despairing about the culture war could have vast numbers of allies if only they let them in! Africa has lots of Christian social conservatives who would pour into the West if they were allowed.
Yes, geopolitics and policy and religion often overlap oddly. The Trumpians briefly get excited about conquering Canada, even though a massive influx of Canadians would be a disaster for them electorally, but it’s people on the left, not the right, that (at least ostensibly) want to admit a lot of African immigrants even though they’d align much better with religious conservatives (at least on the moral questions).
Of course, modern politics is so intensely performative, people probably don’t know themselves much of the time what they really want.
A dynamic of modernization I’ve always wondered about is whether Christianity’s manifest virtues at consolation and providing meaning under the circumstances of life which obtained universally for, well, ever are considerably compromised under the increased comfort, safety, life expectancy, and wealth that are increasingly prevalent across the globe over the last couple hundred years. The Christian order in the “developed” world seems to have been much more fragile under shocks like the World Wars.
There are surely intellectual as well as material causes, as well, but if the faith has been nonpareil at providing the poor and sick with meaning (to the point of Nietzsche’s transvaluation of values), what happens when the world gets rich and healthy?
I don’t know that this is the case, but were it so, the health of African Christianity might be a lagging indicator, and its enrichment (which is happening) may bring them the same woes the wealthy world has. In which case, it would be nice if we had figured out some lessons to impart to them when they hit the same shoals.
(I suspect Vatican II was a bit of an attempt to grasp the intellectual side of this nettle, and on paper may have worked, but in practice ended up a disaster, obviously.)
This is pretty much exactly what I wonder about/suspect. Of course there will be some differences between cultures but I think prosperity, technology, and greater exposure to Western ideas will inevitably raise some of the same challenges.