Heaven Knows How We'll Rekindle Our Religion
By Ranald Macaulay
“I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well’ Psalm 139
“Heaven knows how we’ll rekindle our religion, but I believe we must.”
This was the striking title splashed across The Sunday Telegraph’s centre page four weeks ago. The sub-title was equally arresting: ’Britain’s falling away from the Church has only delivered us into the hands of others’ fanaticism’. The author is the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University – who describes himself in the article as ‘a hard-shelled materialist’ (Sunday Telegraph 31/08/05 – see website:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/07/31/do3102.xml)
He starts by saying ‘…the decline of Christianity – not just in Britain but right across Europe – stands as one of the most remarkable phenomena of our times.’ Then he lists factors which demonstrate the seriousness of this decline, after which he asks ‘Why have the British lost their historic faith? To be frank I have no idea…but I do know that it matters’.
Notice that I’ve highlighted only the last sentence, not because his question doesn’t need an answer, or, worse still, can’t be answered. C-H spends much of its time, as you know, trying to do just this by tracing Christianity’s decline in the UK through ‘the Grand Deception’, ‘the Myth of Progress’ etc. What is striking and refreshing about Ferguson’s article, however, is that he turns the finger upon ourselves for a change. He admits, as Chesterton warned, that ‘superstition’ is on the increase; he sees as everyone must, that Islam is on the march. But, he says, it is we ourselves in the final analysis who are to blame. As a culture we have turned our backs on the historic Christian faith - and it really matters. Why? Not so much because of ‘the spread of… mumbo jumbo’ but because of ‘the moral vacuum our dechristianisation has created. I do not deny that sermons are sometimes dull…But, if nothing else, a weekly dose of Christian doctrine will help to provide an ethical framework for your life. And I certainly do not know where else you are going to get one.’
His prescription is weak, to be sure. Going to church helps no one when the churches themselves have reneged on the historic creeds – as sadly many have. Nor can a vague nostalgia renew us. Merely hearing the scriptures or reciting the commandments or chanting the creeds is of little value in the absence of real convictions about the objective TRUTH of all these statements.
But Niall Ferguson is profoundly right when he warns that to avoid Muslim fanatics on one side and New Age mumbo jumbos on the other ‘we need to rekindle our religion’. Laws presuppose a moral framework – and morality in turn presupposes religion. But, Europe has no convictions about religion today. So, almost by definition, we lack a moral framework. Hence we are powerless against those introducing evidently irrational and destructive alternatives.
His principal intuitions, then, are correct: the current moral vacuum in Europe stems from a loss of faith; we are unlikely to find a reasonable and practicable morality apart from the Christianity which gave rise to the culture in the first place; therefore we need to ‘rekindle our religion’.
But ‘heaven knows (sic)’ he says, ‘how that can be done’! Thankfully heaven does know. Indeed the God of heaven has told us what we need to believe and do, none of which is irrational and all of which is beautiful and wonderful. For, first, the biblical revelation dove-tails with the reality in which ‘we live and move and have our being’ and not least even with our own puny little selves – which keep testifying, as the Psalmist says, that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139). Furthermore, Jesus stands majestically ‘over all the wrecks of time’, as the hymn-writer puts it. In fact his person and not merely his teaching is itself the indispensable Rock upon which the culture finally rests – and without whom it cannot be rekindled. Thankfully, though, Jesus himself makes the gracious invitation to sinners, ‘Come to ME all you who are burdened and I will give you rest’. So hope remains.
Warmly,
Ranald Macaulay
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Ranald Macaulay, 05/09/2005 |
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