Studies Show

That Christianity is in serious and terrible decline.

I know I said I was going to blog about that awesome article that I mentioned yesterday, the one about how the West is repaganizing, but I got distracted by something else, which, in a way, is yet another manifestation, or illustration, of what Louise Perry is talking about. There are a lot of things to worry about as we enter a post-Christian world—abortion, gender confusion, abuse, brutality—but one that might not seem that consequential is the loss of Christian theology itself, even amongst people who call themselves by that name. It’s troubling, but at the same time, captivating, to me to observe how the bits are falling out. It’s like watching a person succumb to the ravages of dementia.

Photo by Steven HWG on Unsplash

Someone we loved very much—my kids especially—died during covid of dementia. The last time we saw her, before the lockdowns, she had forgotten our names, though she knew our faces. Linguistically, it had been heartbreaking and yet fascinating to watch what her mind could still find, and what it couldn’t. All the work-horse phrases that had served her so well and faithfully over her life stood by her, though she couldn’t make them relate to each other or to her circumstances. She could always say, ‘so so,’ and ‘oh well, we’ll get to it,’ ‘oh gosh',’ and ‘you know,’ and bits and pieces like that. She would patch them together in familiar cadences and inflection, but she couldn’t any longer grasp the deeper communication underneath.