Part 3: Christendom and Mission

C. Christendom Evangelism

Evangelism returned in the latter part of the Christendom era in two modes: first, as mission to the non-Christian world outside Europe (first by Catholics, then by Moravians, Baptists and other Protestants); and second, as a response to the rather belated recognition that Europe was, at best, only nominally Christian.

But evangelism was still operating within a Christendom framework.

• Within Europe, it was assumed that the Christian story and the main tenets of the Christian message were familiar, so evangelism primarily involved repeated attempts to re-energise faith and commitment that seemed lukewarm. The emphasis was on calling people to a make a renewed commitment to the implications of the gospel and to express this by activities such as reading the Bible, attending church more regularly, living morally respectable lives, and meeting the needs of others in a society without a welfare state.
  
  
• Beyond Europe, despite the heroic and often exemplary efforts of dedicated pioneer missionaries, evangelism too often degenerated into attempts to coerce or induce conversion and to impose a supposedly Christian and superior European culture on other societies.

While Christendom remained relatively intact, these approaches to evangelism were not perceived as problematic, but the gradual demise of Christendom has changed this perception. In post-Christendom this history has left the churches with a legacy that is at best ambivalent and has left contemporary society with a justifiable suspicion of any kind of evangelistic initiatives. For evangelism in the Christendom mode is not good news for contemporary society, nor an appropriate way for Christians to operate in a changed and changing climate. To a significant degree it never was, but only now are we coming to recognise this. Even now the reasons for our disquiet are not always apparent. If we are to evangelise our contemporary, post-Christendom society, we will need to understand these reasons and look for a new model of evangelism that is both more consonant with the New Testament and more appropriate for our society.

So what were the objectionable features of evangelism under Christendom?

1. The use of force to spread the gospel. European Christendom developed into the most powerful civilisation on earth - economically, politically, technologically and militarily. The assumption was that this achievement was a sign of God's favour and that Europeans had a divine responsibility not only to evangelise but also to civilise other cultures. To accomplish these dual goals, force could be used where necessary.
   

   Another significant consequence of the Christendom shift had been the abandonment of the traditional commitment of the church to peace and non-coercion. In its place new stances developed, of which the most popular were the "Just War" and the "Holy War" positions. The Just War position was a Christianised version of classical Roman thinking on when force was justified - or as its opponents argued a corruption of the church by pagan ideas. The Holy War, or Crusade, was derived (like so much in the early years of Christendom) from a reading of the Old Testament and so was more "biblical" than the Just War position but also more frightening. Often in practice there were elements of both approaches in the arguments of individuals and nations. Both allowed or required Christians to fight on behalf of their nation or civilisation.

   Since evangelising and civilising were both regarded as God's calling on European Christians, the use of force might be applied to either end or both together. And in many situations the Bible and the sword went together. Missionaries and adventurers, evangelists and conquistadors, travelled together and supported each other in their related callings and purposes. Happily, there were occasions when the presence and intervention of missionaries prevented acts of injustice, cruelty and oppression - this aspect of the story is often not given as much credit as it deserves. But too often the work of evangelism was carried out by imposition rather than invitation, leading to forcible conversions and baptisms at sword point.

   Within Christendom, too, evangelism - understood as indicated above (ensuring conformity, enforcing church attendance, etc.) - was often coercive. Because of the close identification of religion and politics, church and state, heresy was regarded as subversive. Not believing what you were expected to believe was treasonous as well as doctrinally deviant. Within and beyond Christendom evangelism was carried out by the powerful on the powerless, and conformity was coerced.
   
   

2. The use of inducements to spread the gospel. In the early years of Christendom, it suddenly became socially advantageous to be a Christian. Now that the emperor was a church member and the state was Christian, those who wanted to be promoted to high office found that professing Christianity was significant (not that much seems to have changed in US presidential campaigns!). This situation was a radical change from pre-Christendom, where Christian faith was a barrier to social advancement. It was in the army where this change was most apparent: by the end of the fourth century only Christians could serve in the Roman army.
   
   And when Christendom missionaries took the gospel to other places they continued to operate in this way. As well as blatant examples of bribery to win converts, there were less obvious but equally dubious forms of inducement. One of these is the well-known phenomenon of "rice Christians", where those who expressed faith in Christ knew they would be rewarded with all kinds of material assistance. In other contexts those who converted could expect favourable treatment by the colonial authorities. It could be argued, of course, that this was simply extending to other cultures the benefits of a Christian civilisation, but not everyone saw it this way - especially those who rejected these inducements and those who experienced exploitation at the hands of those who represented the gospel.
   
   

3. Anti-Semitism. The story of the treatment of the Jews in Christendom is one of the more shameful aspects of European church history. The Jews fitted no more easily into a Christianised Roman Empire than a pagan one. In a unitary culture they stood out as different, non-conformist and threatening. Furthermore, as some theologians and priests insisted, the Jews were the "Christ-killers", responsible for the death of Jesus (whose own Jewishness seems to have been forgotten). The Holocaust, carried out by a Christendom nation, was another horrific expression of a long history of oppression, victimisation, coercion, persecution and bigotry.
   
   

4. Cultural imposition. When Christendom missionaries evangelised other cultures, they not only used coercion and inducements ("flattery and battery"), but they brought with them the assumption that their own culture, being Christian, was superior to all others. Christendom had eradicated any tension between gospel and culture, so that European civilisation was regarded as Christian, and missionaries were disempowered from differentiating between gospel and culture enough to contextualise the gospel into another culture.
   
   The tendency of Christendom evangelists, therefore, was to denigrate or demonise the cultural values and practices of others, while treating the values and practices of their own culture as superior and godly. This resulted in the imposition of European culture and the suppression of indigenous elements. Converts were required to adopt a certain theology, dress in certain ways, erect church buildings in certain styles, sing songs to European tunes and in multiple other ways replace their own culture with that of the evangelists. The result of this was to detach converts from their own people and to make them dependent on the missionaries. It also communicated the message that Christianity was a European religion, which had significant long-term consequences.
   
   

5. Top-down evangelism. Within Christendom, too, evangelism often carried with it certain cultural overtones and expectations. Because church and state were partners, and church leaders were respected members of the establishment, evangelism was imposed from the top of society by those who were educated, articulate, wealthy and powerful. This impacted the message preached, which was often moralistic and generally inculcated conformity to upper or middle class culture. Sin was presented as non-conformity to the values of this culture.

Discussion

Is there really reason to think that these attitudes to evangelism affect the perceptions of evangelism in contemporary society? What about in the churches?

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