Quotes About Post-Christendom

These days, when our companies are spinning their wheels and all the street lights are out, when our familiar routes are blocked and our maps are torn, this first signpost of post-Christendom directs us towards a prodigal Christianity that does not stand still in order to attract, does not sit in the seat of authority, and does not walk in the ways of the universal, but instead delights in the paths of the prodigal God

Post-Christendom allows the church to rediscover itself as agents of God's justice…[as] a community that 'does justice' in a different way to the state and can witness prophetically to the state about injustice. The church can say: 'Give us your prisoners, give us your poor, give us your homeless children and we will look after them.' The law tells us only what has gone wrong, not how to put it right. In this respect, the biblical concept of justice is far more empowering.

Post-Christendom churches will be untidy communities where belonging, believing and behaving are all in flux rather than neatly fixed and integrated. Churches are likely to be defined less by what they believe and more by the values they hold and the way they behave. The communities that thrive will be the ones with core values or guiding principles - and many of these will be unmistakably political.

In Christendom, Jesus as a political figure was often sidelined. In post-Christendom, the church is rediscovering the political Jesus and exploring anew the political dimension of what he had to say. In Christendom, the behaviour of those who began to recognise this dimension were often referred to as 'radical discipleship', but post-Christendom suggests that we are moving towards the abolition of such distinctions as the ideas of 'radical discipleship' enter the mainstream.