Here's a very interesting piece from The Atlantic. I learned that there are 9,900 separate and distinct religions in the world, and that two or three new ones emerge daily. There's discussion of "the secularization myth," of "the religious marketplace," (a theory about what makes new religions succeed), and of "the under-reported shift in the center of gravity in the Christian world" and its implications for the future. ("There has been a dramatic move from North to South. Christianity is most vital now in Africa, Asia, and Latin America...")
The article ends with these thoughts:
"The present rate of growth of the new Christian movements [ie those rising from Africa, Asia, Latin America] and their geographical range suggest that they will become a major social and political force in the coming century. The potential for misunderstanding and stereotyping is enormous—as it was in the twentieth century with a new religious movement that most people initially ignored. It was called fundamentalist Islam.
"We need to take the new Christianity very seriously," Philip Jenkins told me. "It is not just Christianity plus drums. If we're not careful, fifty years from now we may find a largely secular North defining itself against a largely Christian South. This will have its implications."
Such as? I asked.
Jenkins paused, and then made a prediction. "I think," he said, "that the big 'problem cult' of the twenty-first century will be Christianity.""
theatlantic.com |
