The end of December is an interesting time of year for all sorts of reasons, some more logical than others. It marks (although somewhat arbitrarily) the end of the year and so tends to be a time for reflection on the year gone by. Currently the memory-fest that is the BBC’s “Sports Personality of the Year” show is on the TV. And of course it is Christmas time, even although the Christmas movie channels went live in mid-October. But I shall try and suppress any further bah-humbuggery. One phenomenon that appears at this time of year is of course an upsurge in religious, specifically Christian, activity and imagery. And this apparently against a backdrop of a claimed precipitous decline in Christianity in the UK and the US – at least according to some headlines.
New figures from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) prompted the Religious Affairs correspondent of The Times to headline an article “Losing our religion:Christians poised to become a minority”. Similar stories appeared in various US news outlets similarly prompted by a Pew Research Centre report. In the UK the 2011 census “found that 59.3 % of the English and Welsh population were Christian”, but in updated 2019 figures on a much smaller sample this had fallen to 51% - hence the story. In the Pew data there had been a 12% drop in those self-identifying as Christians between 2011 and 2021. Mind you that drop was from 75% to 63%. Do these numbers mean anything? Well, no and yes.
The notion that as I walk around south Liverpool every second person I encounter is a Christian is laughable. I don’t mean in any way that I live among particularly evil, nasty or even generally unlikable people. By and large Scousers are a friendly and helpful bunch up close and personal. But, friendliness, helpfulness and general likability are not the key criteria that determine whether one is or is not a Christian (although one hopes they are observable characteristics in Christians). This of course simply raises the criterion question, one that always dogs self-report surveys. And here there is a really big problem. In a YouGov survey conducted in 2020 in a large UK sample (N=2169), only 27% said they believed in “a god”, and 41% neither believed in “a god” nor in a “higher power”. Only 20% believed that Jesus was “the son of God". In fact, in that particular survey, 55% did not regard themselves as belonging to any particular religion. Cleary somewhat at odds with the ONS numbers.
The problem
here is of course we have to distinguish between the meaning of the word “Christian”
in the Biblical sense, and the other senses in which the word is used, such as
the ethnic or cultural senses. For what it’s worth, my view is that it’s the Biblical
sense that matters, because rather a lot hangs on it (big stuff like one’s
eternal destiny). We have the first recorded use of the word in
the New Testament. at Antioch in the first century AD (Acts 11:26). It was probably initially used as an insult; a label given to followers of the “the Way”, disciples of Jesus Christ. And
probably few in their “right mind” would want to be thus labelled. The people to whom the it was originally
applied share a number of characteristics with those to whom it appropriately
applies today. They made certain claims on their own behalf, and behaved (or
aspired to behave) in certain ways. Their central claim (and for that matter my
central claim) was (and is) that they (and I) knew (know) Jesus. That should be
understood to be different to the claim to know about Jesus. Anyone can
(and everyone should) read the Bible, which goes into considerable detail about
Jesus, detailing His birth (hence Christmas), His death and resurrection,
and His ascension. Knowing about Him is not difficult. But knowing Him is a
personal, subjective experience to which individual Christians give witness.
And I really do mean know Him in the same way as I know others – whether my wife,
children, other relatives or friends.
It is this personal relational aspect that many of those
self-identifying as Christians in surveys are probably a bit hazy about. This "knowing" is a two-way phenomenon, and He will only be known on certain grounds.
To deny that God is, and to deny that Jesus is God is tantamount to denying
that you know Him. It denies who He is, denies His own claims about Himself and
completely undermines His central purpose in being born, living and dying the
way He did. In His own day, Jesus had
various interactions with religious people who by definition were not Christians. These people certainly knew about
Him, and many of them in a much more direct way than is possible today. They knew
other members of His human family, they knew the town He came from, and other
people who grew up with Him, and they heard for themselves from His own lips
what He had to say. But even although they stood in front of Him, and conversed
with Him, it turned out they didn’t know Him (see John 8:19). And He clearly
warned that He would say of many who would claim to know Him, and even do
things in His name, that He never knew them (Matt 7:21-23).
Now with all due respect to many who would self-identify in
a survey as being a Christian, they are not (and would not claim to be) Christ
followers in this sense of knowing Him. They are claiming a far looser
association with Jesus, or perhaps no association with Him directly at all. The
only link is perhaps with some (human) institution or an even looser association by virtue of an immersion in a culture that
is broadly still Christian-like. And if fewer respondents think this is a sensible
basis on which to tick the “Christian” box now than previously, this tells us
precisely nothing about the state of Christianity properly defined. But that doesn’t
mean that it tells us nothing.
As Tom Holland goes to great lengths to show in “Dominion” (not exactly reviewed here),
the cultural effects of Christianity are pervasive in the West even still,
although probably in decline. Many of course will not lament such a decline.
But some, including some atheists, are beginning to murmur that this could
throw up lots of thoroughly unwelcome outcomes for society as a whole.
Meanwhile, don’t worry too much on behalf of us Christians. We won’t be going
anywhere for a bit yet (probably).
