Download PDF | Kenneth R. Ross (editor), Annemarie C Mayer (editor), Todd M. Johnson (editor) - Christianity in Western and Northern Europe (Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity)-Edinburgh University Press (2024).
553 Pages
Series Preface
While a number of compendia have recently been produced on the study of worldwide Christianity, the distinctive quality of this series arises from its examination of global Christianity through a combination of reliable demographic information and original interpretative essays by local scholars and practitioners. This approach was successfully pioneered by the Atlas of Global Christianity 1910–2010, published by Edinburgh University Press on the occasion of the centenary of the epoch-making Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference. Using the same methodology, the Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity take the analysis to a deeper level of detail and explore the context of the twenty-first century. The series considers the presence of Christianity on a continent-by-continent basis worldwide. Covering every country in the world, it maps patterns of growth and/or decline and examines current trends.
The aim of the series is to comprehensively map worldwide Christianity and to describe it in its entirety. Country-specific studies are offered, all the major Christian traditions are analysed and current regional and continental trends are examined. Each volume is devoted to a continent or sub-continent, following the United Nations classifications. Through a combination of maps, tables, charts and graphs, each of the successive volumes presents a comprehensive demographic analysis of Christianity in the relevant area. Commentary and interpretation are provided by essays on key topics, each written by an expert in the field, normally an indigenous scholar. By the use of these various tools each volume provides an accurate, objective and incisive analysis of the presence of Christian faith in the relevant area. The volumes (published and projected) in the series are:
1. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa (published 2017)
2. Christianity in North Africa and West Asia (published 2018)
3. Christianity in South and Central Asia (published 2019)
4. Christianity in East and Southeast Asia (published 2020)
5. Christianity in Oceania (published 2021)
6. Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean (published 2022)
7. Christianity in North America (published 2023)
8. Christianity in Western and Northern Europe
9. Christianity in Eastern and Southern Europe
10. Compact Atlas of Global Christianity As series editors, we rely heavily on the regional expertise of the dedicated third editor who joins us for each volume. Furthermore, each volume has its own editorial advisory board, made up of senior scholars with authoritative knowledge of the field in question.
We work together to define the essay topics for the volume, arrange for compilation of the required demographic data, recruit the authors of the essays and edit their work. Statistical and demographic information is drawn from the highly regarded World Christian Database maintained by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA, USA) and published by Brill. For each volume, a team of 35–40 authors is recruited to write the essays, and it is ultimately upon their scholarship and commitment that we depend in order to create an original and authoritative work of reference. Each volume in the series will be, we hope, a significant book in its own right and a contribution to the study of Christianity in the region in question. At the same time, each is a constituent part of a greater whole – the 10-volume series, which aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of global Christianity that will be groundbreaking in its demographic quality and analytical range. Our hope is that the Companions will be of service to anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the worldwide presence of the Christian faith. Kenneth R. Ross and Todd M. Johnson Series Editors.
Volume Preface
Viewed on a world scale, Western and Northern Europe is relatively small. It comprises nations that combine distinctive ethnic and linguistic identity with a sense of common belonging that is institutionally expressed by the European Union. Both in their diversity and in their unity, these are nations that have contributed disproportionately to global Christianity. Developments in Europe have been definitive for the shape of Christianity worldwide. For example, the split between the eastern and western churches in the eleventh century and the Reformation in the sixteenth century continue, even in an ecumenical age, to set the contours of Christianity wherever it is found. Hence a complete understanding of world Christianity requires a detailed understanding of Western and Northern Europe.
Moreover, even at a time when its Christianity seems to be in recession, such is the historic role and the economic power of this part of the world that its churches continue to wield influence at a global level. The region contains the three large countries of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, roughly on a par with each other in terms of population, economic power and international status. It also has a number of middle-sized countries, each with its own ethnic and linguistic character and distinctive history. Likewise, a number of small countries have maintained their national identities and play their parts in European life today. All of the countries of the region are highly urbanised, with most of their populations living in or around cities, many of which wield significant influence economically and culturally. Yet the region does also have some thinly populated areas, especially in the north, where rural communities play an important role, particularly at a time when there is an imperative to generate energy in greener ways.
Many rural areas are also home to minority ethnic and linguistic groups, which resist homogenising tendencies in the nations to which they belong. Plurality and diversity are also evident as a result of inward migration, with more people than ever coming from different parts of the world to settle in this part of Europe. France and Germany are the dominant countries of Western Europe, each shaped in many ways by a profound church history yet each with its own idiosyncratic character in terms of the social profile of Christianity. The same can be said of Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, countries that are relatively small in geographical extent but large in terms of their role in and contribution to the story of World Christianity. The Nordic countries, with their dynamic cities and extensive hinterlands, have a character of their own, deeply rooted in their particular histories, languages and cultures but with an international outlook and wide-ranging influence globally.
The United Kingdom, with its imperial history and decision in 2016 to break away from the European Union, has an ambivalent relationship with the continent to which it belongs. While British life has much in common with that of its neighbours across the English Channel and the North Sea, it also has its own distinctive traits. Ireland, too, has its own special story, while the Baltic countries, shaped by the experience of Soviet occupation and new-found freedom since the 1990s, present a unique cultural and ecclesial picture. Developments in Western and Northern Europe merit close attention at any time, but the rapid social change that has marked the region’s life during the early twenty-first century very much adds to the interest. This is a prosperous part of the world, but it is struggling with questions of how to sustain the accustomed standard of living and how to offer a meaningful future to those who face poverty and exclusion.
In the light of falling birthrates, inward migration seems to be necessary yet meets with much resistance. The relation of Europe to the rest of the world poses many unanswered questions. The energy crisis, allied to new awareness of environmental issues, is demonstrating the need to rethink the whole way in which society operates. Meanwhile, attitudes to sexuality, gender and family life have been undergoing a major transformation. Deep rifts have opened between different sectors of society and culture wars are being fought. Amidst all this flux, this volume focuses on one particular issue: the rapidly changing profile of the faith that has shaped the life of the continent for a millennium and a half. In pursuit of understanding, the book offers four angles of analysis. The first is demographic, using the methodology of the highly successful Atlas of Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press, 2009) to present reliable statistical information in an attractive, user-friendly format.
Maps and charts depict the status of Christianity regionally and in terms of the principal church traditions. In this region, all countries are majority Christian, although currently institutional Christianity is experiencing unprecedented decline, provoking profound questions about its future. Large-scale inward migration has brought increasing religious diversity and new challenges to societies that historically were organised around one particular expression of Christian faith. Christianity itself is diversifying in its demographic composition as church life is marked by ever-increasing ethnic diversity. These trends are tracked in the demographic analysis. The second angle of analysis is at the country level. Account is taken of the presence and influence of Christianity in each of the 22 countries found in Western and Northern Europe. Scholars belonging to these countries have contributed interpretative essays that offer a ‘critical insider’ perspective on the way in which Christianity is finding expression in their context.
The length of the essay is proportionate to the size of the country and, in several cases, a very small country is considered together with its larger neighbour. Thirdly, Christianity in Western and Northern Europe is considered in terms of its principal ecclesial forms or traditions. Five types of church are considered: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Independent and Anglican. In addition, the Evangelical and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements, which cut across ecclesial affiliation, are examined. In each case, an author who is identified with the tradition in question brings a ‘critical insider’ perspective to the analysis. Fourthly, selected themes are considered. Eight of these run through the entire Edinburgh Companions series: faith and culture, worship and spirituality, theology, social and political context, mission and evangelism, gender, religious freedom and inter-religious relations. A further three have been selected by the editors specifically for this volume on account of their salience in the context of Western and Northern Europe: secularisation, diaspora churches and the European Union. Each of these themes is examined on a region-wide basis, deepening our understanding of features that are definitive for Christianity in this part of the world. As is evident from the short bibliography offered at the end of each essay, this book rests on the body of scholarship that has illumined our understanding of Christianity in Western and Northern Europe. While many fine books about particular aspects of this topic exist, it is rare to find a volume that attempts to comprehend the whole. A significant exception is The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe, edited by Grace Davie and Lucian N. Leustean and published by Oxford University Press in 2021.
That work, too, is informed by the statistical work of the World Christian Database, but the present volume brings a more specific focus on Christianity and greater country-level analysis as well as a stronger orientation to the contemporary situation, and thus the two reference volumes complement one another. Hugh McLeod and Werner Ustorf’s edited volume The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750–2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2003) is magisterial in scope but is an intentionally historical study, whereas the present volume is highly contemporary in its focus. Olivier Roy’s Is Europe Christian? (Hurst, 2019) offers a penetrating analysis, with its focus on the relentless advance of secularisation at the expense of Christianity, and discusses many of the themes that are prominent in the present volume. The latter, however, is more extensive in its geographical coverage, demographic detail and analytical range. Other relevant recent publications focus on aspects of the presence of Christianity without any attempt to take account of the whole.
The Changing Soul of Europe: Religions and Migrations in Northern and Southern Europe, edited by Helena Vilaça, Enzo Pace, Inger Furseth and Per Pettersson (Ashgate, 2014), addresses a theme that recurs in the present volume but is very much concentrated on the impact of migration. Another of the recurrent themes found in the following pages is considered in depth in The Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought, edited by Nicholas Adams, George Pattison and Graham Ward (Oxford University Press, 2013). Lina Molokotos-Liederman’s Religion and Welfare in Europe: Gendered and Minority Perspectives (Policy Press, 2017) examines the interface of religion and society particularly in relation to provision of social welfare – a matter that is addressed in the present volume, which sets it in a broader context. World Christianity in Western Europe: Diasporic Identity, Narratives and Missiology, edited by Israel Oluwole Olofinjana (Regnum, 2020), is an innovative contribution which captures one of the key developments that is considered on a broader basis in the present volume, including a contribution from Dr Olofinjana himself. While resting on the preceding scholarship, this volume breaks new ground through its reliable demographic analysis, its contemporary focus, the local authorship of its essays and the originality of the analyses. The essay authors employ a variety of disciplinary approaches – historical, theological, sociological, missiological, anthropological – as appropriate to their topics. Taken together, the volume offers a deeply textured and highly nuanced account of Christianity in Western and Northern Europe, one that will reward the attention of any who wish to deepen their knowledge of this subject. In most parts of the region, Christianity has for centuries been the folk religion. People were baptised as a matter of course and, while the intensity of devotion varied, the vast majority identified themselves as Christians. To do otherwise required a bold decision. Different forms of church life prevailed in different contexts, but what they had in common was that they occupied a central place in society, whether at the level of the local community or that of national life. The calendar was shaped by the Christian year, the life of the community revolved around the parish church, rites of passage took a Christian form, and the churches were essential providers of social services. This relation of church and society is increasingly breaking down today – a disconcerting experience for those formed in the traditional model as they face institutional and often financial crisis. It could be easy to draw the conclusion that Christianity is in the process of disappearing from European society. Growing numbers of people live their lives without even entering a church building or becoming familiar with the content of Christianity. The lived reality for many is that Christianity is already absent. This process of secularisation or ‘dechurching’ is a major focus of this book. Yet it is also alert to another side of the story, one that speaks of enduring, different and surprising forms of Christian presence. One thesis is that, although it is less apparent on the surface, at a deeper level Christianity continues to shape European life more than many citizens realise. On this view, Christianity has not so much disappeared as dissolved, like sugar in water, into the culture of the continent. Prevailing values continue to be shaped by long centuries of Christian conditioning so that, at least in the imagination of some, Christ continues to be present – only incognito.
At the same time, the decline of much of the inherited infrastructure of Christian presence is accompanied by the emergence of new centres of vitality found in, for example, retreat centres, pilgrimage routes and new forms of church life. Another unprecedented development is the large-scale inward migration that marks European life today and that is having a significant impact in terms of Christian presence. The Orthodox tradition, for example, is more widely represented in Western and Northern Europe than ever before. Christians whose origins lie in the Global South also form a rapidly growing segment of church life in Europe. One of the big unanswered questions that runs through this book is, what will be the long-term impact at the religious level of the many new churches that are forming as a result of inward migration? Meanwhile, the traditional churches struggle to find the chemistry that will allow them to be true to their identity and heritage while reinventing themselves so as to find a place in a new social landscape.
The open horizon that faces Christianity in this part of the world adds much interest to the book. Will Western and Northern Europe completely turn its back on the faith that has shaped its life for millennia or will a new form (or forms) of Christianity emerge that will open a new chapter in the long history? No one can say with certainty. It is clear that many of the familiar landmarks of Christianity are disappearing. Yet others stubbornly remain, while intriguing new developments provoke fresh questions. This book seeks to take account of this moment when some patterns of Christian life and worship appear to be dying out, yet traces of new life are also appearing. Whether these are ephemeral and inconsequential or the birth pangs of new forms of Christian presence remains to be seen. The task of the book is to map the current reality with all its questions and uncertainties. Kenneth R. Ross Annemarie C. Mayer Todd M. Johnson June 2023.
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