Secularism
Pluralism has emerged as a hot topic among Christians today. This can suggest that it is a new phenomenon, representing a thoroughly unique situation with new tensions and benefits. But as Ecclesiastes states, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Although the extent of modern pluralism is new, God’s people have encountered the competitive interaction […]
I recently noticed a statement by leadership guru Seth Goden, who said that one of the things that best prepared children in the late twentieth century for life was “sea monkeys.” Do you remember the old comic books with advertisements for sea monkeys and how the pictures depicted these sea monkeys as majestic-looking characters, with […]
According to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, Most American adults self-identify as Christians. But many Christians also hold what are sometimes characterized as “New Age” beliefs—including belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees. . . . Overall, roughly six-in-ten American adults […]
This issue of Modern Reformation is the second and final in a short series that began with our January/February issue. In these two issues, we’re tackling the challenge of our contemporary culture. In January/February, we debunked the “myth of secularism.” Now, in this issue, we’re helping you understand where your unbelieving friends and neighbors are […]
In 2015, a Pew survey on religion was released that confirmed the greatest hopes of some and the greatest fears of others—Christianity is in decline in America.1 Or is it? After digging through the data, Ed Stetzer pointed out that “convictional Christianity” is actually holding steady but “nominal Christianity” is hemorrhaging. The real story, Stetzer […]
A friend recently shared an image on social media showing the Disney cartoon villain Cruella de Vil, bloodshot eyes staring straight ahead, hands clutching the wheel of her infamous coupe, black-and-white hair waving wildly in the wind, oversized fur coat flapping behind—in a word, crazed. Over the image someone had typed: “Me trying to excel […]
The Talking Heads’ song “Once in a Lifetime” is punctuated by a series of questions that all begin with, “You may ask yourself . . . ” As Western culture continues its dangerous decline, many pundits find themselves repeating those lyrics and asking themselves, “How did we get here?” Over the next two issues of […]
The current moment in the Western church is a watershed in our history. Today, for the first time since antiquity, Western Christians inhabit a largely non-Christian society. For most of us, these changes take the form not of aggressive persecutions but of subtler social pressures. Regular church attendance is no longer a cultural expectation but, […]
Eerdmans, 2014; 160 pages (paperback), $16.00 In graduate school, one of my professors made a connection between two mythological figures who encounter the sirens on separate occasions. When passing the sirens on his voyage home, Odysseus has his crew plug their ears and tie him to the mast, thereby avoiding the enchanting song. Orpheus, however, […]
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is inarguably the cornerstone of the entire Christian faith. And I think for a lot of non-Christians in the West that’s pretty clear because we (rightfully) make a big deal out of the resurrection. We love to tell the story of the empty tomb every chance we get, even though […]
Is the rise of secularism in the West about to usher in a new "Dark Age"? What will the future of Christianity be like in such a world? Is there anything we can do to prevent this bleak future from occurring? The rise of secularism and the fall of Christian influence are topics of great […]
The conventional narrative of how the West lost God goes something like this: As people became more educated, as science became more revered, and as people became more materially prosperous, the need for a transcendent being began to wane. Nietzsche was able to declare, "God is dead," because he thought the human race was finally […]
Modern Reformation does not believe that the world today is necessarily any more sinful now than it was five hundred or a thousand years ago. Scripture speaks simply of two ages after the fall of Adam: this present evil age and the age that is to come (Heb. 6:5; 2 Cor. 4:4). To be sure, […]
Modern Reformation recently asked Steve Bruce, University of Aberdeen sociologist and leading international authority on secularization, to discuss some of the major issues he raises in his important book Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. What is the “Secularization Paradigm” and why has it come under fire in recent decades? The Secularization Paradigm (SP) […]
From the beginning of the world there has been no region, no city, in short, no household that could do without religion….At the same time, I do not say, as Cicero did, that errors disappear with the lapse of time, and that religion grows and becomes better each day. (1) John Calvin Introducing the Secularization […]
