U.S. News & World Report's May 30, 2005 issue has a two-page spread about Europe's Christian problem. It echoes (and cites) the observations in Weigel's The Cube and the Cathedral, which we discussed last month. Link to U.S. News article. Excerpts:
From the ban on the wearing of visible religious symbols in French public schools to the refusal of the EU to include specific mention of Christianity's influence on Europe's distinctive civilization in its first constitution, a mountain of anecdotal evidence suggests that an aggressive form of secularism--what the British religion writer Karen Armstrong calls "secular fundamentalism" --is afoot in Europe.
[Weigel] says, spiritual boredom gives rise to hyperindividualism and a lack of confidence in the future, attitudes that undercut the resilience of the family and ultimately lead to dwindling reproduction rates.
Islam scholar Bernard Lewis is not alone in saying that Europe will be Islamic by the end of the 21st century "at the very latest." To many who think that Europe is more a cultural than a geographic entity, this would alter the very core of European identity.
But many say that Christianophobia is only part of the contemporary story. They point to a widespread upsurge of nonhierarchical, populist Christian movements across Europe and into other continents, claiming hundreds of thousands of mainly youngish followers who seek ways of making Christian beliefs real in their lives and work.
