This morning in my email something appeared from “articleforward.” Well, actually, the only thing that appeared was the tag “The Rise of Anti-Western Christianity (Must Read).” There actually wasn’t anything attached. Intrigued I googled it. Turns out it was an article published originally at the Quarterly Review, a journal with a “non-aligned right” perspective.
I found the article itself, written by Matthew Roberts, slightly modified, by whom I’m not sure, at the Brussels Journal.
The lead paragraph goes:
“During Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to London this September, Cardinal Walter Kasper noted two things about London: it’s secular and parts of it resemble a Third World country. While the politically correct were quick to condemn Kasper and the Vatican was even quicker to exhibit its pro-Third World, anti-racism bona fides, Kasper’s two statements taken together are noteworthy in that they demonstrate two antagonistic aspects of the modern world. The First World is secular; the Third World is religious.”
And that this fact is re-shaping Christianity. And, it comes with some warnings, and, it appears, some suggestions…
Ostensibly a review of Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, it seems ultimately a clarion call for Westerners to see a threat looming, and to retrench in the face of this threat.
Mr Roberts observes, “the current manifestation of Western Christianity has become too universalist, too obsessed with “rights” and love of The Other. It is not surprising that traditionalists have abandoned it. While Western religious leaders invite the Third World to colonize their ancestral lands, many Western conservatives view contemporary Christendom as becoming antithetical to their own survival.”
Please note. Universalism here is a bad thing. Throughout the article it seems the slant is extremely uncomfortable with the idea of bringing an other in. And he’s pretty clear on who the other is.
Is his thesis racist? I’m really not sure. But, it does, I feel, swirl around the edges of that sewer…
He, Roberts, also brings an intriguing view of paganism and appears to be aligned with those traditionalist versions that identify with blood and land, writing glowingly of “Small contingents on the right – both in Europe and the United States – have returned to the indigenous pagan religions of Europe. Unlike the universal, creedal aspects of contemporary Western Christianity, European pagan religions are passed on by blood and progeny, and often involve forms of ancestor worship – either worshipping immediate ancestors or claiming the gods as ancestors.” Now Roberts acknowledges there are always blendings with indigenous paganisms, He seems to see some sort of counter to the wave of otherness in a re-embrace of Western paganism into Western Christianity. It seems…
I think the primary source for the article, Philip Jenkins, is in fact onto something. While Mr Roberts is fearful of this new trend and calling for some sort of stand against this tide, admittedly an interesting stand for its call to reclaim particularly Euro-pagan strands, Professor Jenkins, according to Roberts, in fact welcomes the new Christianity.
Okay. I’m not sure to what extent I have a dog in this hunt.
But, I am intrigued by the swirl of events, particularly as no one gets to excuse themselves from life in this world.
As a Western Buddhist, a religious liberal, a Unitarian Universalist minister, and very much a universalist more or less in the use given in Mr Roberts’ article, I find myself, when considering the throws of Christianity a mouse sleeping with an elephant.
Is this the next culture war? Are we witnessing a new twist on the clash of civilizations?
While Mr Roberts may be at the edge of it, I think there is something in the noticing of the shifting of what Christianity is, certainly where the locus of its juice is. And reflecting on what this may mean is important, particularly for those of us sleeping with the elephant.
The Chinese curse goes “may you live in interesting times.”
We certainly are…
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