Part 1: The Rise and Fall of Christendom

C. The Fall of Christendom

It is time to ask an important question that we need to ask whenever we study the Bible, theology or church history: so what? What is the legacy of the Christendom era? How are the story of Constantine and the Christendom shift relevant to us today? In the remaining parts of this study I want to explore three areas where the Christendom legacy remains significant and, I will argue, problematic. These three areas are: the way we interpret the Bible, the way we engage in mission and the way we do church.

But let me finish Part 1 by making two points. For, however Christendom is evaluated, two things are becoming increasingly clear.

First, the long era of Christendom is coming to and end. Evidence is accumulating of a second shift, the transition from Christendom to a post-Christendom situation. The percentage of the population attending state churches in most European nations is now very small. Frequent calls are heard, even within state churches, for disestablishment, for abolition of or changes to the parish system and the practice of infant baptism, and for recognition that a new era is dawning. Few missiologists now divide the world into Christian and pagan nations, and the growth of non-Christian religions in Europe is forcing us to explore the implications of witness in a pluralistic society.

Alan Roxburgh writes: "The fourth and twentieth centuries form bookends marking transition points in the history of the church. Just as the fourth century adoption of Christianity by Constantine forced the church to struggle with its self-understanding as the new center of the culture, twentieth century Christians must now struggle to understand the meaning of their social location in a decentered world."

Given its long history in Europe and its all-pervasive nature, the fall of Christendom is unlikely to be sudden or total. Even when the official relationship between church and state is dissolved, the Christendom mindset within the churches (and to some extent also within society) will persist and many will seek a return to a supposedly more Christian society. But there is no way back. Our task is to reject nostalgia and rise to the challenges of Christian discipleship in a different kind of culture. As we will see in the next three parts of this study, there are real difficulties in this situation, but there are also great opportunities.

Second, I have just used the phrase "Christendom mindset". It is a mindset rather than a political arrangement that is the heart of Christendom. For fully three-quarters of its history the church in Western Europe has operated within a Christendom framework. Only in the first three centuries, in various persecuted dissident movements between the fourth and sixteenth centuries, and increasingly in the last five centuries, has this mindset been challenged.

This mindset has deeply affected the way European Christians have interpreted the Bible, done theology, thought about mission and church, made ethical decisions and understood discipleship. Among other things the Christendom mindset operates as though the church is at the centre of culture, responsible for the way history turns out, exercising a top-down influence. This was how the Christendom churches worked and how they saw the world. But in post-Christendom, the churches are not at the centre but on the margins; any influence we have is likely to be bottom-up; and perhaps we can now learn once more to trust God to make sure history turns out right while we concentrate on being faithful disciples and seeking first his kingdom.

Being on the margins rather than in the centre will require a change of perspective, a very different mindset. It will mean re-thinking many issues, discovering the ways in which the Christendom legacy continues to influence us. It will require creativity and courage as we engage with our changing culture and wrestle in fresh ways with what the gospel means in this culture. What we look at in the next three workshops will just be a sample of the kinds of things we will need to explore. But we are not alone. We have as conversation-partners the pre-Christendom churches that also operated from the margins, the marginal dissident movements that challenged the Christendom mindset, and the God of the Bible who so often seems to operate, not from the centre, but from the margins.

Back to Contents >>