The Situation and Future of Church and Theology in the Early 21st Century

Author: Allan Kroll

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Thomas-Andreas Põder

TALLINN 13.06.2019

EELK Institute of Theology 1st year Christian Cultural History Master’s Program

TALLINN 13.06.2019

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Church in Today’s World
2. Future Trends in the Church World
   • 2.1 Religious Pluralism
   • 2.2 Distrust of Institutional Religion
   • 2.3 Consumer Christianity
   • 2.4 Emphasis on Experience Over Theory
3. The Role of Theology in the 21st Century Church

Conclusion

References

Introduction

This paper focuses on the situation of the church and theology in the 21st century. The work is divided into three parts, the first of which describes the church’s situation in today’s world, illustrating this with statistical data from different continents. The second part of the work describes future trends in the church world, considering current tendencies. The third part analyzes the role of theology in the 21st century church.

1. The Church in Today’s World

At the end of the second decade of the early 21st century, over 7 billion people live in the world, of whom 2.18 billion consider themselves Christian. Most of these associate themselves with some church or denomination, regardless of how often the person attends worship services at that church. Over the past hundred years, the world’s population has nearly quadrupled, and the number of Christians in the world has grown by the same amount. In 1910, Christians made up 35% of the world’s population; in 2010, they were 32%. However, this apparent stability is deceptive. The center of Christianity is moving from Europe and North and South America to entirely different continents (Africa and Asia). Today, the majority (63%) of Christians still live in Europe or the Americas, but a hundred years ago, 93% of the world’s Christians lived on these continents. The proportion of Christians on the aforementioned continents is declining, but Christianity has spread to where it was previously very modestly represented. Christianity has become a global religion, which could not be said even a hundred years ago.

The largest church in the world is the Catholic Church, which constitutes approximately half of all the world’s Christians, followed by various Protestant churches (37%) and Orthodox (12%). In addition to these, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses make up 1% of the world’s Christian population. In Christianity’s birthplace, the Middle East and North Africa, there are now fewer Christians (less than 4% of the population) than in any other major geographical region. Nigeria has twice as many Protestants as Germany, the cradle of the Protestant Reformation. Brazil has more than twice as many Catholics as Italy.

Similar to Buddhism, Christianity has remained a marginal minority in the region where the religion originated, but over time has become the dominant or at least rapidly growing religion in former mission areas. Africa, Asia, and Latin America are becoming the engines of Christian church growth. More Christians already live in the “Global South” than in the “Global North” (North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan). While the number of Christians in the “South” is greater, the percentage of Christians in the population in specific regions is smaller than in the “North.” Proportionally, there are the most Christians in North and South America, and the countries with the largest Christian populations in the world (USA, Brazil, and Mexico) are located there.

Considering population aging and negative birth rates in most Western countries (with some exceptions, such as the USA), these trends are not expected to change in the near future. Islam is considered the fastest-growing religion in the world. This is mainly associated with natural demographic factors (high birth rates among Muslims). Christianity is growing slightly faster than the world population in general, but still significantly slower than Islam.

In the context of Christianity, the 21st century has been called “Africa’s century.” In 1910, only 1% of the world’s Christians lived in sub-Saharan Africa, but by 2010 this percentage had risen to 24. This growth is not driven solely by charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity, but also by old churches (Catholics, Anglicans).

2. Future Trends in the Church World

Just as geographical changes have occurred, social and theological changes have also taken place within Christianity and churches. The following names some expected future trends in the church world.

2.1 Religious Pluralism

Contact with other religions and worldviews inevitably affects Christianity as well. On the one hand, people coming to the church bring with them various spiritual teachings and practices; on the other hand, Christians themselves are also interested in spiritual practices from other religions, creating a syncretic hybrid faith. Every era has elevated different virtues to the pedestal of supreme value. In today’s Western world, this is undoubtedly tolerance. Many churches and Christians lack the spiritual backbone to resist the spirit of the age. Since tolerance is the supreme virtue today, intolerance is the “mortal sin” that Christians and churches also try to avoid.

An externally different but essentially similar problem is African and Latin American Christianity’s tendency to absorb elements of indigenous peoples’ religions.

Western Christians and churches have had to learn for over half a century to live in a society where Christianity is not the only dominant religion. Living, studying, and working alongside representatives of other religions is an everyday reality, not a missionary field. Secularization is still a trend in the Western world, but the extinction of religion predicted in the 19th century is certainly not foreseeable even in externally secular countries. Church membership and worship attendance are clearly in decline. In light of these data, the emphasis on Estonia’s reputation as one of the world’s most non-religious countries among our people becomes clearer. Religiosity has not disappeared anywhere, but has transformed and been replaced by new spirituality and belief in esotericism. While 35% of people in Estonia are indifferent to faith, 10% lean toward atheism, and 7% are convinced atheists, 54% of Estonians believed that a person’s character and destiny are influenced by the position of stars and planets at the moment of birth. 40% believed that magical actions can influence events and other people. 28% of people believed in the protective power of talismans. 81% of respondents believed that some people have the ability to see the future. 62% considered it possible that some people have the ability to heal the sick. 45% believed in reincarnation, and 51% believed in life after death.

Therefore, churches must be able to respond to the challenges posed by both other religions and new spirituality. The world has changed, and it is no longer possible to navigate it using the “old map.”

2.2 Distrust of Institutional Religion

The Western world has become characterized by distrust of traditional institutions. The church has not been left untouched by this. Scandals related to money, abuse of power, and deviant sexual behavior have severely undermined the church’s credibility. This in turn has created a movement of “Christians without church,” where believing without belonging has become the norm. There is also a tendency for the emergence of small congregations or networks of congregations meeting in home groups. Avoiding commitment is characteristic of 21st century people. People avoid too settled a life, working in one place for a long time, and binding themselves long-term to any movement or organization. This trend is further facilitated by the explosive development of information technology and social media in recent decades. It is difficult to imagine this trend breaking. Groups of believers connected through a virtual network and Christians obtaining spiritual food from the internet are a new reality that the church cannot ignore. Whether this should be considered a problem and how to solve it is a topic that does not fit within the framework of this work.

2.3 Consumer Christianity

The “faith market” is open to all interested parties, and “customers” must be impressed with something to survive in the competition. People are accustomed to going where they “get something.” The same mentality has transferred to attitudes toward the church. The “church shopper” can decide which church suits them best based on the quality of products and services offered. The church faces the question of whether to accept this or try to guide the process in a biblical/Christian direction.

2.4 Emphasis on Experience Over Theory

Today’s person’s enthusiasm for new spirituality and esotericism reflects a desire to find something that enables a person to control and improve their life. Spiritual practices aimed at reducing stress, healing the body, achieving economic success, or improving relationships are driven by the understanding that religion (a word usually avoided by practitioners of this spirituality) must work practically and be experiential. Theoretical philosophizing interests few.

In this regard, Christianity has much to offer the world. Starting from the Old Testament prophets, Jesus and the apostles, and the early church, one can see that faith in God’s miraculous power has also touched very practical areas of life. Healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and material provision miracles have always existed to a greater or lesser extent in the Bible and church history. Unfortunately, in historical churches these have mostly been relegated to the background. In this respect, the charismatic movement, which especially emphasizes the experiential side of Christianity, can contribute to the church’s survival and growth. Of the world’s approximately 2.2 billion Christians, 584 million have a Pentecostal/charismatic background, and this movement constitutes 27% of the world’s total Christian population and 8% of the world’s population. The charismatic movement is growing especially rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

3. The Role of Theology in the 21st Century Church

Not only educational institutions providing religious education engage in theology, but every church and every Christian. Christians educated in theological seminaries, universities, and colleges take what they have learned with them to their churches and congregations. This in turn begins to shape congregation members’ theology, worldview, and lifestyle. “Christian theology exists only in connection with the Christian church, in connection with the social form of faith, whose central characteristics and manifestations are such institutions as worship, baptism, catechism, church ceremonies, Bible reading, prayer, etc.” Therefore, it is important that this theology has something important to say to today’s church and person. Brian D. McLaren writes aptly that “most Protestant seminaries are fighting last year’s battles with all their might, hardly being aware of today’s problems, barely thinking about tomorrow.” Of course, it is necessary to know history, but to be able to answer today’s person’s questions or objections, one needs to know the context in which we currently live.

One practical goal of theology is undoubtedly to teach Christians to properly relate to other religions in a pluralistic world. By becoming “intellectual Amish,” the church loses contact with the world, without which it is impossible to fulfill its role of being salt and light in the world. Jesus’ Great Commission to preach the gospel to all nations presupposes the ability to make contact, the skill to contextualize and communicate one’s message. Undoubtedly, it would be useful in this context if theological educational institutions paid more attention to teaching apologetics.

Theology should help Christians and churches find opportunities for successful functioning in today’s religious world. Three models for positioning oneself in a pluralistic world and fulfilling one’s God-given purpose are relativistic inclusivism, non-relativistic exclusivism, and non-relativistic inclusivism.

The relativistic-inclusive approach makes evangelism not impossible, but meaningless. Why proclaim “one’s truth” if one is convinced that the other has their truth and they are essentially equivalent. Non-relativistic exclusivism is the safest in terms of defending one’s identity, but the most difficult to accept as a starting position by those seen as objects of proclamation. Non-relativistic inclusivism allows for dialogue while not compromising one’s faith. The requirement to love one’s neighbor applies not only within the faith community but concerns all people, regardless of their faith or lack thereof. Introductions to different world religions in theological seminary curricula provide an opportunity to learn what and why other religions believe and proclaim. Suspicion and distrust of the unknown or foreign is natural to people. However, this can be overcome by communicating and becoming familiar with the other party’s positions. The author of this work, as a prison chaplain, does regular cooperation with representatives of several other denominations and religions and can therefore confirm from experience that cooperation based on love and respect for neighbors according to the non-relativistic inclusivism model in various areas of social life is possible.

One role of theology is undoubtedly to confirm a Christian’s religious convictions in a world that is flooded with information. Never in history has such a large amount of information been so easily accessible to so many people. However, deciding on the quality of information is beyond many people’s capabilities. Christians are no exception. With little effort, it is possible to find lectures and writings by people with doctoral degrees on the internet to support any theological/religious teaching. Adding to this the multitude of opinions and the “dogma” of the relativity of truth that has become dominant in today’s world, a person can fall into error by consuming all this.

Quality, contemporary, and biblical theology presented to people in understandable language enables Christians to better navigate this information jungle that surrounds us. Unfortunately, one often gets the impression that theologians write only for other theologians and “feed giraffes,” not sheep. Most of the text is incomprehensible to ordinary mortals. Theologians themselves must engage more in self-analysis and repentance to be able to share the Christian message in a way that does not go “over the sheep’s heads.” Theoretical and impractical armchair theology may impress colleagues, but it is of no use to those it should actually help. Out of fear of losing their academic credibility, theologians are often not willing to “lower the bar” and speak in language that people understand.

Conclusion

This work addressed the situation of the church and theology in the 21st century. The first part of the work described the spread of Christianity and Christian churches in the world and noted that instead of Christianity’s traditional strongholds (Europe and North America), Christianity is now growing in Africa, Asia, and South America. Proportionally, however, Christians still make up a larger part of the population in the USA and Europe than in the aforementioned countries.

The second part of the work addressed various future trends in the church world, and the third part addressed the role of theology in the 21st century church. The role of theology is seen, in addition to preparing clergy, also in preparing Christians to be able to answer today’s society’s questions and objections. Theology should prepare people for dialogue in today’s pluralistic world. Theological education should also enable people to better navigate a world oversaturated with information.

References

Brian D. McLaren “A New Kind of Christian,” Allika Publishing, Tallinn, 2006

Thomas-Andreas Põder “Religious Culture in Evangelical Lutheran Perspective,” EELK Institute of Theology, Tallinn, 2018

https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-movements-and-denominations/#defining

http://www.saarpoll.ee/UserFiles/File/Elus,%20usust%20ja%20usuelust_2015_ESITLUS_FINAL.pdf

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-fastest-growing-religions-in-the-world.html

https://reflections.yale.edu/article/new-voyages-church-today-and-tomorrow/rethinking-christianity-21st-century

https://www.brettmccracken.com/blog/blog/2016/10/27/21-challenges-facing-the-21st-century-church

https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Allan Kroll

Allan Kroll is a Christian teacher, preacher, and spiritual author whose writings are marked by deep biblical reflection, spiritual sobriety, and a clear call to personal repentance and dedication. At the heart of his message is a living and honest relationship with God rather than formal religiosity.

Kroll’s teaching is firmly rooted in Scripture and in the historic Christian faith. He addresses with courage themes such as the posture of the heart, spiritual lukewarmness, self‑deception, and the continual need to seek God. His style is direct, pastoral, and at the same time deeply refreshing to the soul.

Allan Kroll’s writings invite the reader not to settle for a superficial faith but to seek God with all their heart throughout their entire life.