Theology 7372, Fall 2009

The emperor Constantine I ended the persecution of Christians sponsored by Diocletian with the Edict of Milan in 313 and proclaimed religious toleration as an emblem of the Roman Empire. He later made Christianity the official religion of the empire. The Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches forged a model of the state church as a political/religious institution. The Reformation shifted the players but did not dislodge Christian privilege.  Even the Enlightenment did not completely dislodge Christian privilege. However, one of the key elements of post-modernity is the end to Christian privilege. Some call this the post-Constantinian era.

Before the talk of post-modernity Lesslie Newbigin observed the sunset of Christian cultural hegemony. Others have taken his insights and forms what has become the “missional church” conversation. Darrell L. Guder has championed this perspective in the United States. He has edited a book Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America which has a selection available through google books.

Newbigin reminds the careful reader that North America and Europe have much to learn from Africa, South America, and Asia. More controversial Fareed Zakaria described a Post-American World that replaces bilateralism with a multi-lateralism. The super-powers of the “cold war” are replaced with a new configuration of world power. What Zakaria argues for in the economic and political realm has a parallel with the work of Phillip Jenkins. The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity and the Lost History of Christianity. Today’s North American Christian minister needs better skills in listening to Christians in other continents.

Missional church and global Christianity in a post-Constantinian world means that the institutional and corporate church that dominated church life and theological education in the middle to the twentieth century in no longer the default setting for seminarians.

Terry Muck observes that global Christianity and the changing demographics in North America mean that Christian hegemony gives way to Alien Gods on American Turf: How World Religions are Evangelizing in Your Neighborhood.

These realities shape how we encounter Christian Scriptures 1 and 2 classes. What impact would you anticipate?