Just before Christmas our band did an event in a Church of Scotland church building. In conversation with the minister of the church, I remarked at how impressive the building was. I enthused at how wonderful his Christmas services must be in a building that was so suited to the traditonal type carol service. He replied that only a few people turned up because most of his congregation were elderly and struggled to turn out to evening events.
He then told me that at one time the church seated 980 people. On Sundays when communion was served they had to have two services. Amazing!
No doubt this was the case throughout Scotland - and the rest of the UK. Where did all those people go? What happened?
Showing posts with label Church History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church History. Show all posts
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
The prevailing power of an almost lost story
The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins is a must read. I am saying that even though I've only read two chapters! I think this book is going to be promoted in many places as a must read. There's so much in it. I do hope the BBC or Channel 4 or someone turns it into a documentary.
Its title sums up the main thread of the book: a lost story of how the Christian faith spread East and thrived for a thousand years after the fall of Rome. That story in itself is one that is little known and unfamiliarity makes it all the more exciting - you really don't know what's going to happen next!
In reality though, it is much more. A feel for the complex relationship between Islam and Christianity emerges from stories of interaction between Christians and Muslims. The refreshing approaches to mission of the Jacobites and the Nestorians, who despite their theological shortcomings were intent on winning the world for Christ. The towering figure of Bishop Timothy and the vast spiritual empire that he led. And perhaps most surprisingly, the relative backwardness of the Western Church and the darkness of the European continent.
There are pointers as to how faiths survive persecution and setback and why reversal comes about in the first place.
And supremely, the brute fact that even an expression of Christianity as vibrant as that described in the pages of The Lost History of Christianity can be swept away almost without a trace. And therein lies the strength of the book - to engage you emotionally as well as intellectually.
Its title sums up the main thread of the book: a lost story of how the Christian faith spread East and thrived for a thousand years after the fall of Rome. That story in itself is one that is little known and unfamiliarity makes it all the more exciting - you really don't know what's going to happen next!
In reality though, it is much more. A feel for the complex relationship between Islam and Christianity emerges from stories of interaction between Christians and Muslims. The refreshing approaches to mission of the Jacobites and the Nestorians, who despite their theological shortcomings were intent on winning the world for Christ. The towering figure of Bishop Timothy and the vast spiritual empire that he led. And perhaps most surprisingly, the relative backwardness of the Western Church and the darkness of the European continent.
There are pointers as to how faiths survive persecution and setback and why reversal comes about in the first place.
And supremely, the brute fact that even an expression of Christianity as vibrant as that described in the pages of The Lost History of Christianity can be swept away almost without a trace. And therein lies the strength of the book - to engage you emotionally as well as intellectually.
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