Search results
If religions have changed so dramatically in the past, how might they change in the future? Is there any substance to the claim that belief in gods and deities will die out altogether?
- Sumit Paul-Choudhury
Mar 25, 2024 · Does Christianity have a future? Probably not! And ‘it is because of doctrine’. While theology may hold value within the institutional elements of the church, In general, it is quite meaningless to the laity and without the lality there is no church.
- Quotes
- Statistics
- Causes
- Religion
- Future
- Issues
- Overview
- Resources
- Population
- Selected publications
- Example
- Publication
Christianity is changing rapidly in a century where commerce, communications, and travel are connected globally in unprecedented ways. How do we understand these changes in the faith, and what impact will global connectedness have on the church? Meanwhile, there are too many places in our world where religion is used as a pretext for violence. Th...
Trends have not dramatically eroded the relative number of Christians in the world. The overall percentage has been relatively stable. In 1910, approximately 35 percent of the worlds total population were Christians; a century later, Christians comprised 32 percent.1 Christianity has increased in Latin America. Looking at Catholicism, we can see th...
There are numerous reasons for the decline of Christianity in Europe. Two world wars have scarred the minds of many Europeans: People wondered where God was. Other factors are at work. One of the most interesting observations I have heard came from a Lutheran bishop in Sweden. At a dinner in Lund, I asked her how things were in her diocese. She sai...
There is one other trend to take into account: When thinking about the global church, it is impossible to ignore the presence of other religions. With 32 percent of the worlds population, Christianity is the largest religion today. However, Muslims comprise 23 percent, unaffiliated individuals 16 percent, Hindus 15 percent, Buddhists 7 percent, fol...
1) A Changing Center of Gravity. Christianitys numerical shift from North to South and from West to East will alter its character in significant ways. For those Christians who belong to a worldwide communion, the presence of Africans will become more and more evident. Among Protestants this means the African churches will soon if they do not alrea...
4) From Faith to Faith. We must recognize that we are only one-third of the worlds population. How should we think of the other two-thirds? In practical ways, the issue is more pressing for some Christians than for others. In the last decade, 45 percent of new marriages in the U.S. crossed major confessional lines or were interfaith. In 1950, only ...
Gregory E. Sterling is The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. The author of several books, he concentrates his research in Hellenistic Judaism, the writings of Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Luke-Acts. His next book, for Eerdmans, is called Defining the Present through the Past.
Notes 1 Luis Lugo and Alan Cooperman, Global Christianity A Report on the Size and Distribution of the Worlds Christian Population, Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion and Public Life (Dec. 19, 2011). The estimated numbers are 611,810,000 of the worlds 1,758,410,000 total population in 1910 and 2,184,060,000 of the worlds 6,895,890,000 total po...
5 The Global Catholic Population, Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion and Public Life (Feb. 13, 2013). The numbers are from less than 1 million to 171 million. 6 The Global Catholic Population. The estimated numbers are 70,650,000 in 1910 and 425,400,000 in 2010.
11 Among the studies that address this, Lamin Sannehs West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (Hurst, 1983) and Gerrie ter Haar, How God became African: African Spirituality and Western Secular Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), are notable.
12 The classic statement of this is Walter Bauer, Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei in ältesten Christentum (BHT 10; Tübingen: Mohr, 1934, 19642). There is an English translation, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (trans. Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Krobel, Fortress, 1971).
13 This has been reported by many, most famously in Nones on the Rise, Pew Research Center Religion and Public Life Project (Oct. 9, 2012).
Jul 30, 2012 · There is no single form of Christian civilization, in the same sense that there is no stereotypical Christian life; across two millennia, the faith has found ways to make itself at home in the Roman court and the medieval monastery, the Renaissance city and the American suburb alike.
Dec 19, 2014 · It’s impossible to predict the future, but examining what we know about religion – including why it evolved in the first place, and why some people chose to believe in it and others...
Oct 14, 2021 · The Gospel is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Faith is “a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) that promises to never disappoint (Romans 5:5). Out of everyone in our world, Christians should be the most hopeful—confident that our future is secured by a good and sovereign Savior.
People also ask
Does religion have a future?
Is there a Christian civilization?
Is the Christian faith in terminal decline?
Is a Christian Renaissance inevitable?
How did Christianity change over time?
How long did Christianity take to form?
Apr 12, 2011 · According to some, Christianity in the UK has no future. Closure of churches and falling attendances in the last few decades appear to show that the Christian faith is in terminal decline.
