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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 The de-Christianising of Europe — who do you blame? Dear Friends,  Catch-up day today in that I'm bringing you the excerpt from Tom Lee's epilogue that I missed yesterday. It was a hard choice though as Ian Elmer is back — and seemingly firing on all twelve cylinders. He's written quite a bit on the meaning of Pentecost on the forum in the last 48 hours or so and I was strongly tempted to make the response he posted this morning to a couple of questions the focus of today's lead commentary. We're becoming embarrassed with choices here these days. In the end though Tom Lee won out mainly because what he's writing about cuts back to where the de-Christianising of Europe began — at the time of the Reformation. This is the big issue that seems constantly on Papa Benny's conscience — how to restore Christianity to centre stage in European culture. Reading today's excerpt from Tom Lee's exploration of the origins of Christianity I am left wondering who is most to blame for the de-Christianising of Europe — us Catholics or the Protestants? I'm left wondering if the restoration of Christianity to a central place in civilised culture can take place without first the restoration of unity amongst Christians. In turn though how might it be possible for Christianity to deal with the challenges posed by fundamentalism and the fundamentalist mindset. That would seem to be the emerging major challenge emerging in this new century. As I keep suggesting in dealing with fundamentalism humanity is dealing with forces in the human psyche that are most powerful than anything we know of in creation. How do we (humanity collectively) deal with this deep need that exists in all of us for certitude — often even at the expense of ultimate truth?
Wishing you a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life and in our world. Catholica |
