Saturday, December 6, 2008

Religion as a Bull Market?

Okay, so maybe it's tacky to post a link to another blog. Forgive me this once. I thought this was interesting, if not because Richard John Neuhaus is using a clever typology to create a cleverer typology then because it seems relevant. Here's a key excerpt:
If the subject of the future of Christianity is reformulated as the future of religion in this society and the world, there is, from a historical and sociological perspective, nothing to worry about. For as far as one can see into the future, religion is a bull market. In America, where more than 90 percent of the people say they believe in God and well over 80 percent claim to be Christians of one sort or another, Christianity is a bull market. We can debate until the wee hours of the morning whether this is “authentic” or “biblical” or “orthodox” Christianity, but the fact is that this is the form—composed of myriad forms—of the Christian movement in our time and place. (www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1240)
I am continually vexed by these sorts of questions… and discussions on Shane Claiborn.

Cheers!

3 comments:

david gentino said...

Where are you at in wrestling with these things Jon?

John Paulling said...

Jon, the link doesn't work. You mind redoing it? I'd like to read the whole thing.

Jon Furst said...

-John, I think I fixed it.
-On my worst days I suppose I must sound like a raving theistic socialist–– and I do see the inherent dangers–– but usually I am just demurred by western protestant Christianity's apparent alignment with capitalist ideals.

I have been sitting on the ethical question posed by Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath" for s few months now, and I am no nearer a coherent application for the church than I was two months ago.