Christendom and Post-Modernity – and asceticism

Why do we refer to a lengthy period of western European
life/history/society/culture as “Christendom” [ the word means “the
Christian jurisdiction” or “the place where Christianity prevails”]?

Not because we claim that each and every person or even the majority of
persons were living virtuous lives obeying the commandments of Christ Jesus
in that period. But certainly because,

1. Everyone was baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity.
2. History was seen as beginning with the Creation, involving the Fall,
centering upon the Incarnation, and ending with the Second Coming of Christ
Jesus and the Final Judgment.
3. The Christian Festivals, including the weekly Lord’s Day (Sunday) gave
meaning to the days and weeks and months of the year. Public worship was
central to life.
4. The laws of the nations upheld the truth and priority of the Christian
Faith and Church.
5. People lived with a sense that all life was watched by and guided by and
to be judged by God the Creator, Redeemer and Judge. All aspects of life
were related to God and preparation for death and entry into the next life
was very important.
6. Virtually all public education and charity was initiated by and
controlled by the Church.


Today we live in a very different situation. Today the key terms are
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and so on. Though there is
belief in a deity or deities on an individual basis, a nation-state does not
publicly confess faith in and order its laws according to the will of a
Deity. Religion, worship and morality have been marginalized and privatized.
All this means that God is not the One to whom history and nature and
conscience and culture point. The once supreme transcendent God is at best
now the immanent God for the center of the universe for moderns is the human
being, the climax of biological evolution, who may look for deity in the
center of her/his being. And meaning is no longer sought in the confession
of God and a Christian universe but in personal autonomy. It is not merely
that “man is the measure of all things” but that human beings rejoice in and
see meaning in their subjectivism and permissiveness as autonomous inward
looking beings.

What have the Churches done as the West has moved from Christendom, into
modernity (the culture created by the Enlightenment) and now into
post-modernity (the rejection of many of the rational assumptions of
modernity)? Some have moved with the flow and accommodated their teaching
as to what is the Faith and how they worship to the dominant assumptions of
society – be it those of modernity in the 19th century or those of
post-modernity since the 1960s. Others have resisted on this or that front
and sought to preserve the Faith intact.

However, what seems to be true is that all of us, and all churches in the
West, have been more deeply affected by modernity and then post-modernity
than most of their members ever realize or could in fact realize. And this
most certainly includes those who believe themselves to be orthodox, whether
Catholic or Protestant.

This may be illustrated by reference to what is believed, taught and
confessed as the Christian Faith, or as Christian Morality or as Christian
Living.

If we take the latter, Christian Living, as an example, what seems to have
happened in the collapse of Christendom and the arrival or modernity and
then post-modernity is that the commitment to asceticism or to the
mortification of self/sin has reduced dramatically. And primarily because
the churches have called for much less then was the norm and expectation in
say the Middle Ages, when Christendom thrived, or even in the 17th century
when it was coming to an end. God, it seems, demands less of us as the
dominant culture has moved away from confessing Him as Lord.

In fact, it seems that the churches in the West have lost nerve and do not
want to ask too much of their modern members for fear of not holding them.
They each devise a story and form of Christian living that is designed to
give them an edge in the active competition of the supermarket of religions,
and for most of the time this means that the demands upon Christians are
less onerous and thus more in conformity to the world.

The rules for fasting in the Catholic Church are a simple example of
reduction in duty – now the period of fasting before taking Communion is
virtually no time at all. Lenten fasting has also been reduced to some
easily attainable rule. And contemporary Protestants seemingly pay only
lips service to fasting.

Likewise teaching the duty of self-examination daily so as to open up one’s
soul for God’s penetrating light and thus to confess sins and seek pardon
has diminished dramatically in all jurisdictions of the Church. Further,
spirituality is not seen as allowing the Holy Spirit to rule and guide one’s
heart, mind and will by the use of demanding Gospel disciplines, but rather
spirituality is seen as cultivating an inner journey into the depths of one’
s own soul to find one’s own spirit and feel its connection with universal
spirit. The latter journey is pleasant and soothing while the former is
demanding and painful as long as there is sin to be discovered and
mortified.

Freedom was previously seen as liberation from one’s selfish and disordered
passions in order to love God and the neighbor, but now freedom is often
liberation from this worldly oppressors by using one’s (unsanctified)
passions.

What is demanded of the baptized in terms of their duties toward God, the
Church, their neighbors and society has dramatically decreased in recent
times as the practice of religion has become more privatized and unconnected
with the public square and sphere. There has been a leveling wherein God is
at the same level as everything else -- People wear jeans at home and to go
to the ball park and then they wear jeans to engage in worship (often
called celebration). Apparently now to be casual is to be spiritual.

The only people who dress up for worship are those in the choir who put on a
special uniform to present worship as a form of theater and a show – they
give a musical presentation to the congregation, which is casually dressed
for the performance. No one looks up or kneels for all look at each other –
God is in the round. Best clothing is saved for dinner parties and other
this-worldly activities.

Of course there are always notable exceptions, but in general religion
still thrives in the West (particularly in the competitive religious
supermarket of the USA) because it has accommodated to a large degree to the
individualism, subjectivity, personal autonomy, permission (permissiveness),
casuality, materialism, and pragmatism of what we call post-modernity. It
is very different from the religion that was found in the height of
modernity (mid-19th Century) that still looked up to Deity and forward with
Deity and had a sense of public duty and responsibility as well as personal
discipline. And it is very different indeed from the religion of the
Protestants and Catholics of the 17th century for whom God was the very
center and substance of all life and things and possibilities.

We cannot return to Christendom. We cannot return to modernity. We are in
post-modernity and there is no escape. But we can learn from earlier times
of what in fact is godliness and what is a God-fearing person for the Fear
of the Lord is the beginning of both knowledge and wisdom.

A final word from one who is the President of the Prayer Book Society....One
advantage in using a classic or traditional Liturgy, which is also in a
classic form of the vernacular [such as the classic Book of Common Prayer
1662/1928], is that a people is faced in it with a content so different from
modern religion, for it is the substance of that which inspired people in
Christendom and caused them to lift up their eyes unto the Lord of all
being. Of course to use it means much more than merely admiring it – it
means adopting its doctrine and discipline and entering fully into its
presentation of worship of the Holy Trinity.

The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon June 14, 2001