A call for Christianity to recover its confidence The mainstream Churches are faltering, or even at risk of dying out, in their Western and Middle Eastern heartlands. Surveys confirm that only a minority of people in a country such as Britain now claim Christian allegiance. The pattern is being matched in neighbouring societies. At the same time many opinion formers preach secularist ideology with a self-confidence shading into dogmatism. Others, unsure of their moorings, feel some residual attachment to spirituality, while being sceptical about the existence of God & other articles of belief. Yet church teaching remains intellectually robust, as well as inspiring a transformative global presence. In this major and wide-ranging international study, both a report on the unsettling consequences of secularisation and a defence of a creed too often belittled by its opponents, Rupert Shortt outlines Christianity’s fading profile in the present, but also argues compellingly that Europe’s historic faith remains critical to the survival of a humane culture.
