Is Europe a Cause for Peace and Hope for US Christians?

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As 2021 begins, much of the planet is looking for hopeful signs of better things to come in the new year while at the same time adjusting to the new normal of a prolonged Covid shutdown.  For many of the faithful, a significant concern with respect to the new normal has to do with the ability to attend religious services.

This worry seems to be driven by three factors: first, a desire not to be separated from communal worship; second, a concern that individual parishes and congregations and Christianity in general will never really recover from Covid-mandated shutdowns; and third, a fear, principally in the US, that governmental encroachment on fundamental religious rights will never be rolled back.

European religiosity

In some ways, the European experience can provide encouragement and guidance with respect to these latter two concerns.  The new normal may very well necessitate limited religious gatherings for some time to come; but the uncertainty and anxiety that the pandemic has created will likely spur the search for meaning and peace, which should result in a greater role for Christianity in the changing world, albeit one that could look somewhat different than in the past.

Unlike America, Europe has literally and figuratively seen its churches burned, closed and destroyed over the centuries.  While the scars from these traumas may not be readily evident, the events themselves profoundly shaped the way in which European Christianity has developed.  In many ways, the result has been an expression of faith that looks far different from that of America or much of the rest of the world.  Virtually no country in Western Europe has been untouched by a religious civil war or a suppression of Christianity throughout their long history as a civilized continent.

Given the very different historical arcs that the US and Western Europe have followed, most surveys of religious attitudes, beliefs, and observances reveal striking differences between American and western European Christianity.  Far from being the clichéd godless continent, Western Europe is a deeply faithful place that presents a seeming paradox of personal belief that does not always find expression in public acts of devotion.

A strange paradox

In one of the more recent studies of religion in Western Europe, the Pew Research Center found high degrees of Christian affiliation and faith, but low levels of religious observance.  Across Western Europe, a median of 71% of respondents stated that that they were Christian, yet fewer than 18% of attend religious services more than a few times a year. By contrast, 65% of Americans identify as Christian and 41% attend public worship services on a weekly basis.

While these figures would seem to paint a picture of a moderately religious people on one side of the ocean and a secular society on the other, the reality is much more nuanced and complex.  Church attendance is only one of at least 177 measures of religiosity that have been tracked and studied. The multitude of ways in which religious expression is examined would indicate that many Christians can and do find ways to express the depth of their faith outside of traditional worship services.  This seems to be particularly the case in Western Europe.

A median of 85% of non-practicing Christians, defined as individuals who identify as Christian who but attend church services less than once a month, state that they are raising their children as Christians.   While Pew does not provide any detail as to what this might entail, it does indicate a depth and commitment to Christianity among the vast majority of western Europeans who almost never set foot in a church.

Pervasive secularization

There are several competing theories as to the reason for this apparent paradox of religious commitment versus lack of religious observance, but most revolve around the idea of the triumph of secularization in Western Europe.

One particularly interesting theory by Williame argues that secularization has sown the seeds of its own demise by seeking to provide science-based answers to every question about existence.  Williame believes that the lack of satisfaction that these answers provide, coupled with the inability of science to give a sense of meaning or context in an ever more complex and uncertain world results in an increase of religiosity.

Other theories, such as those of the sociologists Bellah and Giddens, effectively state that only institutions are ever really secularized while individual beliefs persist.  Taken together, these various perspectives seem to fit well with what the numbers reveal about Christianity in Europe – namely that, in a secularized society, the Christian faith remains vibrant.

Cause for hope

As the reality of a prolonged Covid-related lockdown in the US becomes more evident, the European example should give fretful Americans cause for peace and hope.  American churches will not likely be nationalized or closed as many of their European counterparts were in the past. The Church will likely be altered by the pandemic, as has the rest of society, but the faith will endure. Seizing a bit on Williame, there may even be reason for Catholics to hope in these trying times that the disruption caused by the pandemic will cause an increase in the number of those individuals who are seeking an answer to life’s problems by turning to faith.

The question then becomes this: what will they find?  A people harried, harassed and anxious, or the sublime and strong faith in which Christ admonishes His followers to rest.  What they find will likely determine much of what the new normal looks like and much of what the future holds for the Church.

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2 thoughts on “Is Europe a Cause for Peace and Hope for US Christians?”

  1. Martin Guntermann-Bald

    Dear Paul A. Escott!
    Thank you for this balanced and well-researched text. I am a European (German) Christian and I agree with you: we have a secular Christianity here, which is threatened both from within and from outside. The worse danger is from within …
    But Hölderlin – a romantic poet from Germany – said:
    “But where there is danger, the rescuing also grows.”

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