Cedric Mayson spirit level AN Wilson in last week’s Mail and Guardian thinks that the Christian church faces extinction (“Christianity: The end is nigh”). “Christianity will decline yet further … because Christians themselves no longer believe it is true.” Wilson rejoices in the advances in biblical scholarship and suggests that only a minority of scholars still profess old-fashioned, orthodox Christian beliefs. But “the leadership of the churches is dishonest. They have been theologically educated and know that concepts such as the physical resurrection and the virgin birth are not ‘true’ history, but … do not dare to rock the boat. As a result nearly all of us stay outside the church and watch its decline with sorrow. What else does an organisation expect which so consistently refuses to be intellectually serious?”
Dr Peter Brierley thinks the Christian church in Britain will be dead and buried within 40 years, quietly vanishing from the mainstream of life. “The basic doctrines of Christianity will be believed much less, and there will be many who actively do not believe them.” His finding is based on the English Church Attendance Survey which shows that only 7,5% of the population now go to church. The South African Christian Handbook shows a similar decline in our major churches. Does this mean that Christianity is inherently false, or has today’s Church lost its way? The message of Jesus has always struggled against the tendency of religious institutions to become corrupted by false guides until a new denomination of prophets has arisen to get them back on track. Is Christianity due to be born again in the 21st century? Two people who seem poles apart agree that a major problem today is religious fundamentalism. Speaking at the recent conference of traditional healers Credo Mutwa warned of the dangers to South Africa from the aggressive, destructive activities of “born-again Christians”. He finds them divisive, intent on “breaking up people”. Father Albert Nolan, a leading South African theologian, believes that the fundamentalism infecting all churches is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth. At the Institute of Contextual Theology last week, Nolan pointed out that all religions tend to develop a conservative faction which seeks security in rigid legalism, a bigoted exclusivist self-centred individualism or ecclesiasticism which claims to possess the keys to truth and to God. Jesus’s enemies were the “scribes and pharisees” who were the fundamentalists of his day, citing their traditions as the only way to God. Jesus called people to have faith in God’s ruling power to turn the world upside down, and practise loving their neighbours, caring for the oppressed, liberating the poor, healing the sick and spreading hope. Jesus gave faith in God’s will to establish love and justice a more prominent place than the fundamentalist emphasis on scripture, doctrine, ritual, traditions, self-centred prayer, or personalised religious feelings. Jesus told arch-fundamentalist Nicodemus that he must be born again, and it holds.
Whether they cling to traditional ecclesiastical orthodoxy, or promote a self-centred pentecostalism, fundamentalists need rebirth to “see the ruling power of God” and follow the ways of Jesus: action, deeds, loving, caring and generosity. Fundamentalists usually support interests vested in oppressive ecclesiastical, economic or political regimes, which is clear in both the liberation and transformation struggles of our society. Their emphasis on the next world conceals their complicity in the injustice of this one. Their obsession with self-centred salvation, personal sin and private morality, weakens any commitment to transform society. Acts of personal charity for the poor take the place of social action to banish poverty: they support relief work but not development. The fundamentalist heresy is not the “original gospel”. It arose in the 19th century to oppose the rediscovery of Christianity through modern scholarship, and was reminted in the 20th century to condemn liberation theology which exposed the injustice of Western capitalism. Many fundamentalists supported the oppressive forces which promoted apartheid and still resist the new government.
The born-agains need to be born again. Fundamentalism affects all religions and has a crucial corollary. It brings activists together in a new life of faith. The struggle against apart-heid was unique because some people from all religious backgrounds found they were united against injustice and for freedom. They were linked by their actions, not their doctrines: and then discovered a convergence of doctrines too. The new municipal areas provide a human-sized tier of government in which religious activists can once more act together. Waged against fundamentalists across the board are people with a faith vision and spiritual power who want to help build a new South Africa. Loving your national or provincial neighbour is too remote, but local government provides a sphere of operation in which people can come together to tackle poverty and Aids, corruption and fear, and find the faith and enthusiasm to build a nation through transforming neighbourhoods. Orthodox religion may totter into retirement, and fundamentalism rise to heaven in clouds of emotional steam, but collective caring can give us all a new lease of spiritual life. The great books of Wilson are only limited because he operates within the circle of Western thought which focuses faith in religious institutions. Maybe a bit of Mutwa and Nolan can enable religion to find new life in the social and political life of the people.