Table Of ContentThe Decline of Established
Christianity in the Western World
While church attendance in the West is often cited as being in decline, it is
argued that this applies primarily to the older established forms of Christi-
anity. Other expressions of the faith are, in fact, stable or even growing in
this part of the world. This volume provides multidisciplinary interpreta-
tions of and responses to one of the most complicated and controversial
issues regarding the global transformation of Christianity today: the decline
of “established Christianity” in the Western world. It also addresses the
future of Christianity in the West after the decline.
Drawing upon historical research, sociology, religious studies, philosophy
and theology, an international panel of contributors provide new theoretical
frameworks for understanding this decline and offer creative suggestions
for responding to it. “Established Christianity” is conceptualized as histori-
cally, culturally, socially and politically embedded religion (with or without
official established status).
This is a dynamic volume that gives fresh perspective on one of the great
social changes taking place in the West today. As such, it will be of great
interest to scholars of religious sociology, history and anthropology, as well
as theologians.
Paul Silas Peterson teaches church history and theology at the University of
Tübingen, the University of Heidelberg and the University of Hohenheim,
Germany. He is the author of The Early Hans Urs von Balthasar: Historical
Contexts and Intellectual Formation (2015), Reformation in the Western
World: An Introduction (2017) and “The Decline of Established Christi-
anity in Germany: Contemporary History and Protestant Responses,” in
Religion – State – Society: Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews
(2015).
Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Relations
Series Editor: Frans Wijsen, Radboud University, The Netherlands
The aim of this series is to publish scholarly works of high merit on relations
between believers of various streams of Christianity, as well as relations
between believers of Christianity and other religions. We welcome studies
from all disciplines, including multi- and interdisciplinary studies, which
focus on intra- and inter-religious relations and are non-denominational.
Editorial Board:
Michael Amaladoss (Chennai, India)
Francis Clooney (Cambridge, USA)
Fatimah Husein (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Diego Irarrazaval (Santiago, Chile)
Robert Schreiter (Chicago, USA)
Abdulkader Tayob (Cape Town, South Africa)
Anya Topolski (Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
www.routledge.com/religion/series/WCIR
The Decline of Established Christianity in the Western World
Interpretations and Responses
Edited by Paul Silas Peterson
The Decline of Established
Christianity in the
Western World
Interpretations and Responses
Edited by
Paul Silas Peterson
First published 2018
by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Peterson, Paul Silas, 1979– editor.
Title: The decline of established Christianity in the western world :
interpretations and responses / edited by Paul Silas Peterson.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Studies in world
Christianity and interreligious relations | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017028706 | ISBN 9781138308152 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315142852 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Christianity—20th century. | Christianity—21st century. |
Christianity—Forecasting. | Church attendance.
Classification: LCC BR481 .D433 2017 | DDC 270.8/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028706
ISBN: 978-1-138-30815-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14285-2 (ebk)
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by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of contributors ix
Foreword xiii
ROBERT J. SCHREITER
Acknowledgements xv
PAUL SILAS PETERSON
1 An introduction to the essays and to the phenomenon of
established Christianity in the Western World 1
PAUL SILAS PETERSON
PART I
Background issues and theoretical approaches 31
2 Causes of the decline: historical, empirical and theoretical
perspectives 33
PAUL SILAS PETERSON
3 Analyzing religious decline: a sociological approach 75
EVA M. HAMBERG
4 Cultural considerations in the decline of Christianity 87
NEIL ORMEROD
5 Interpretations of the decline and responses to it 99
PAUL SILAS PETERSON
PART II
Case studies on specific regions and groups 127
6 More than just de-Christianization: Christian mission in
face of religious indifference in East Germany 129
EBERHARD TIEFENSEE
vi Contents
7 Towards a faithful Christian community in Canada:
a missiological response to religious change 145
CHARLES FENSHAM
8 American mainline Protestantism: on the history
and future of a culture-forming confessional identity 157
RICHARD R. CROCKER
9 An evangelical response to the decline of Christendom 165
TIMOTHY LARSEN
10 Going big: mega-churches in the midst of declining
Christianity in the West 175
LACEYE WARNER
PART III
Perspectives from world Christianity
and African Christianity 187
11 An opportunity to foster inter-Christian reciprocity:
the view from “World Christianity” and “the Next
Christendom” 189
JORGE E. CASTILLO GUERRA
12 Reframing our experiences in the light of the cross: how
African Christianity sees the decline 203
ESTHER E. ACOLATSE
PART IV
Contributions from public theology and the philosophy
of religion 213
13 Taking sin seriously again: a perspective from theology
and public life 215
MARTYN PERCY
14 The religion of decline: a perspective from the philosophy
of religion 227
OLIVIER ABEL
Contents vii
PART V
Response and outlook 237
15 Christianity in the Western world after the decline:
challenges, opportunities and outlooks 239
PAUL SILAS PETERSON
16 Exploring the past for a stronger future:
a reflection on meaning and hope 267
ELIZABETH KOEPPING
Bibliography 283
Index 293
Contributors
Olivier Abel, Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Protestant Theology
in Paris (France), is the author of over 700 publications which deal with,
among other things, Christianity in the modern world, secularization,
urban culture, John Calvin, John Milton, Pierre Bayle and Paul Ricoeur.
With other scholars, Prof. Dr. Abel has also edited and contributed to
multiple works, including Le christianisme, quel impact aujourd’hui?
(2004); Paul Ricoeur: penser la mémoire (2013); L’Europe et ses Roms
(2014); L’amplitude de la reconnaissance (2014); Ricoeur, Plaidoyer pour
l’utopie ecclésiale (2016).
Esther E. Acolatse, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Theology
and World Christianity at Duke Divinity School (Durham, North Caro-
lina, USA), has contributed to the conversation between Western and
non-Western theological traditions and has recently written on pastoral
ministry in Africa in her For Freedom or Bondage: A Critique of African
Pastoral Practices (2014).
Jorge Castillo Guerra, Assistant Professor at the Radboud University Nijme-
gen (Nijmegen, Netherlands) and member of the Nijmegen Institute for
Mission Studies, has written extensively on the theology of missions and
migration, issues related to world Christianity and liberation. He is the
author of Iglesia: identidad, misión y testimonio (2008) and recently
edited Relaciones interreligiosas en el Caribe (with Joop Vernooij, 2009).
Richard R. Crocker, Presbyterian Church (USA) minister. Dr. Crocker is
the retired chaplain at Dartmouth College and now former dean of the
William Jewett Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New
Hampshire, USA). He is a contributor to the Christian Century, the flag-
ship magazine of mainline Protestantism in the United States.
Charles Fensham, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Knox
College of the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), has written
on church and ministry in the Canadian context, as well as ecumenism
and new conceptions of missional ecclesiology. Prof. Dr. Fensham is the
author of To the Nations for the Earth: A Missional Spirituality (2013)
