During the
last five hundred years the traditions of Christianity and Christendom
were transformed by:
|
The Renaissance |
|
The
splintering of the Western Church by the Reformation |
|
The
intellectual challenges of the Scientific
Revolution and the Enlightenment |
|
The rise to
dominance of the modern nation-state |
|
The emergence
of new urban societies and institutions
independent of the churches. |
|
The expansion
of European empires into the Americas, Africa, and Asia |
The
dramatic multi-sided transformation continues into the third millennium:
|
Christendom
has largely disappeared both as reality and ideal; political
power, social norms, and cultural values co-exist with Christianity,
at times symbiotically, at times neutrally, at times hostilely. |
|
Fragmentation
and pluralism have become features of Christianity. |
|
The
identification of Christianity with European civilization has
steadily weakened as Christian missions penetrated non-western
societies and cultures, a long-term trend that has greatly
accelerated in the 20th century. The result is the
third cultural amalgam in the evolving multi-cultural
Christian tradition. |
Despite
the gradual disappearance of Christendom, these modern transformations
have shaped a diverse Christianity that has entered the 21st century,
still growing, as the largest of the world's religions. And as Jaroslav
Pelikan points out in his last chapter, the appeal of Jesus' person and
message at the beginning of the third millennium extends beyond the
various Christian churches, making him "the man who belongs to the
world." |