Postchristianity 3081527 212577157 2008-05-15T10:54:25Z 80.56.174.237 If the reference says "Postchristianity," why does it say "PostChristianity" in the article? Besides, it's ugly [[Image:Europe belief in god.png|thumb|250px|Belief in God per country (Eurobarometer 2005)]] {{postmodernism}} '''Postchristianity''',<ref>G.C. Oosthuizen. ''Postchristianity in Africa''. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd (December 31, 1968). ISBN 0903983052</ref> '''postchristendom''' or '''postchristianism''' are variants of a term used to describe a contemporary cultural attitude strictly linked to [[postmodernism]]. It may include personal [[world views]], [[ideologies]], [[religious movements]] or [[societies]] that are no longer rooted in the language and assumptions of Christianity, though it had previously been in an environment of ubiquitous Christianity (i.e., [[Christendom]]). [[Neopaganism]] and its cultural backgrounds, are the most notable examples of this kind of postchristian [[new religious movements]]. Thus defined, a post-Christian world is one where Christianity is no longer the dominant [[civil religion]], but one that has, gradually over extended periods of time, assumed [[values]], [[culture]], and [[worldview]]s that are not necessarily [[Christian]] (and further may not necessarily reflect any world religion's standpoint). This situation applies to much of [[Religion in Europe|Europe]], in particular in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Northern Europe]], where no more than half of the residents in those lands profess belief in a transcendent, personal and monotheistically-conceived deity. In his [[1961]] ''The Death of God'', the [[France|French]] theologian [[Gabriel Vahanian]] argued that modern secular culture in most of [[Western Civilization]] had lost all sense of the sacred, lacked any sacramental meaning, and disdained any transcendental purpose or sense of providence, bringing him to the conclusion that for the modern mind, "[[God is dead]]". Other thinkers, namely [[Thomas J. J. Altizer]] and William Hamilton, two theologians on the faculty of [[Emory University]], drawing upon sources dating back to some of the aphorisms in [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]]'s ''[[Letters and Papers from Prison]],'' would bring this line of thought to public attention in a short-lived intellectual fad that occurred in the mid-to-late-1960s among some younger Protestant theologians and ministerial students. Conservative reaction on the right and social advocacy efforts on the left blunted its impact, however, and it quickly became forgotten in favor of more ethically-oriented movements such as [[liberation theology|liberation]] and [[feminist theology|feminist]] theologies, within the Protestant mainline at least. [[Image:Neopaganism numbers by country.png|thumb|320px|Demographics of Neopaganism in the modern day countries of the world.]] Some American Christians (primarily Protestants) also use this term to discuss [[evangelism]] to [[unchurched]] individuals who may have grown up in a non-Christian culture where such traditional [[Biblical]] references may be unfamiliar concepts. The argument goes that in previous generations in the United States, such concept and other artifacts of [[Christianese]] would have been common cultural knowledge and would not have needed to be taught to adult [[religious conversion|converts]] to Christianity. In this sense, post-Christian is not a negative term, but is used to describe the special [[remediation|remediative]] care that would be needed to introduce [[new Christians]] to the nuances of Christian life and practice. Some groups, mainly liberal or radical ones, even use the term "post-Christian" as a self-description, not regarding it as an epithet whatsoever. [[Dana McLean Greeley]], the first president of the [[Unitarian Universalist Association]], described [[Unitarian Universalism]] as postchristian insofar as Christians no longer considered it Christian, while persons of other religions would likely describe it as Christian, as least historically. [http://www.danielharper.org/blog/?page_id=463] ==See also== *[[Christian existentialism]] *[[God is dead]] *[[John Shelby Spong]] *[[John Dominic Crossan]] *[[Neopaganism]] *[[Postmodernism]] *[[Postmodern Christianity]] *[[Post-theism]] *[[The Jesus Seminar]] ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== *[http://www.uuma.org/BerryStreet/Essays/BSE1974.htm ''Liberal Religion in the Post Christian Era'', Edward A. Cahill, 1974] *''The Post Christian Mind: Exposing Its Destructive Agenda'', Harry Blamires, Vine, 1999 (ISBN 1-56955-142-1). *"The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era", Gabriel Vahanian, George Braziller, NY, 1961 *Dana MacLean Greeley, ''25 Beacon Street, and Other Recollections'' (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), pp. 11-12. *[[Thomas J. J. Altizer]], The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966). *Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton, Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966). *Bernard Murchland, ed., The Meaning of the Death of God (New York: Random House, 1967) ==External links== *[http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/node/279 Anabaptist Network (UK) - After Christendom] [[Category:Postmodernism]] [[Category:Christian philosophy]] __NOTOC__