Speaker: Christianity is plausible
Christianity is plausible in the 21st century and the Bible still speaks great truth, said Charles H. Lippy in a speech Thursday at the Chase Fine Arts Center.
Lippy is the LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and current president of the American Society of Church History. He said he has written or edited more than 20 books and is currently working on a textbook on religion in American life.
Lippy said there are many challenges that face Christianity in the 21st century. Lippy started the speech by going over the 1950s and the challenges and changes religion was taking at the time.
“It didn’t matter if you were a Protestant, a Catholic or a Jew, it just mattered that you had a religion,” he said.
He said there were many changes that were occurring at the time and many new religions began to develop, which is one of the challenges to Christianity. He said there began to be several faith communities in one suburb and people began to realize this was acceptable and one religion was just as good as another.
Another challenge Lippy mentioned was the introduction of birth control in the 1960s. He said from that point on there was a steady decline in most Christian populations. He said Christians were not reproducing at the same numbers as they had been in previous years.
Other challenges include increased privatization and individuation, Lippy said. He said with entertainment changing as it did, with sermons on the television, religions on the Internet and religious blogs, people began to pick and choose what parts of certain religions they wanted. He said holiness became personal and people began to have communal dwellings instead of organized religions.
Lippy said soon more than half of the Christians on the planet will be living below the equator. Christianity is changing daily. Rockers are replacing choirs, people wear jeans to sermons instead of their Sunday best and pastors give short sermons that are convenient, he said.
Other religions are growing at a much faster rate than Christianity as well, he said, and Muslims now account for more of the world’s population than Christians.
He said, “Is Christianity plausible in such a changing world? Yes, I believe so. I think the Bible still speaks great truth and Christianity has shown resilience since the very first century and I think it will continue to be resilient.”
–s.k.b@aggiemail.usu.edu