Friday, December 03, 2004
Spengler on Christianity in America
From Asian Times
I don't agree with all of his points, (such as all the Founding Fathers being lukewarm Christians) but for those who have either never considered that American Christians are different from their European ancestors, or never understand why, this is a fascinating article. His history of revival in America is particularly useful.
And he makes this point about the difference between our faith and "religion":
Within the European frame of reference, there is no such thing as American Christendom - no centuries-old schools of theology, no tithes, no livings, no Church taxes, no establishment - there is only Christianity, which revives itself with terrible force in unknowing re-enactment of the past. It does not resemble what Europeans refer to by the word "religion". American Christianity is much closer to what the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in 1944 from his cell in Adolf Hitler's prison, called "religionless Christianity". Soren Kierkegaard, I think, would have been pleased.
I don't agree with all of his points, (such as all the Founding Fathers being lukewarm Christians) but for those who have either never considered that American Christians are different from their European ancestors, or never understand why, this is a fascinating article. His history of revival in America is particularly useful.
And he makes this point about the difference between our faith and "religion":
Within the European frame of reference, there is no such thing as American Christendom - no centuries-old schools of theology, no tithes, no livings, no Church taxes, no establishment - there is only Christianity, which revives itself with terrible force in unknowing re-enactment of the past. It does not resemble what Europeans refer to by the word "religion". American Christianity is much closer to what the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in 1944 from his cell in Adolf Hitler's prison, called "religionless Christianity". Soren Kierkegaard, I think, would have been pleased.
papijoe 10:02 AM
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