Although when we refer to a consideration of the state, nature and future of religion in the world today at the Summer Program in Theology held at the Christ Church College, University of Oxford, one would straightforwardly presuppose that the discussion is exclusively on the future of Christianity and the spotlight unquestionably is the future of the Western Church and as we are evermore aware of the global village, the global Church of Jesus Christ. We focus on the theories of secularization, cultural Christianity and de-secularization by a few scholars such as Steve Bruce, David Martin, Grace Davie, Paul Heelas and Peter Berger.

During the post-Reformation era, two Protestant emphases such as individualism, namely the necessity of individual commitment including moral improvement and pragmatism, which promotes separation of church and state, may have been two negative influences on the future of religious institutions in the experiences of western Christianity. According to Peter Brierly, “England is littered with people who used to go to church but no longer do. We could bleed to death. The tide is running out. At the present rate of change we are one generation from extinction.” Even the Queen, who is the head of the Church of England in England, in her Christmas message in 2000 shocked all Christians even outside the British isles as she referred to the “sense of the spiritual whether we believe in God or not”. Obviously she is aware of the fact that only 1% of the British population claims to be part of the church! And yet, 99% of the funerals are religious services; in other words, people are drawn to parish church at critical moments in life. And Steve Bruce claims to have the last word, “Britain in 2030 will be a secular society”. Having had the opportunity to observe the religious landscape of Europe and North America for over the past three decades, I do not agree with most scholars who use terms like secular and sacred or religious as if they were two absolutely separate entities.

Although England does not have the Christian presence it used to have for hundreds of years and European Christianity does not have theological and ecclesial supremacy with the exception of the Roman Catholic denomination, on the global church as such, what is happening outside Europe is far more important in the realm of religion, in particular Christianity as there are more Christians in Africa than in Europe. The power of Christianity in the global south and east cannot be ignored. Philip Jenkins* tells the following story about the ‘liberating word’.” On one occasion, two bishops were participating in a Bible study, one from Africa, the other from the U.S. As the hours went by, tempers frayed as the African expressed his confidence in the clear words of the scripture, while the American stressed the need to interpret the Bible in the light of modern scholarship and contemporary mores. Eventually, the African bishop asked in exasperation, “If you don’t believe the scripture, why did you bring it to us in the first place?” North America and Europe are no more the Christian heartlands. As Jenkins puts it, the gravity of the Christian world has moved south and back to the east.

There are more Muslims today in Canada than Presbyterians! Perhaps more Sikhs and Hindus than traditional Anglicans in Canada! The USA, the capitalist haven of entrepreneurial ecclesial enterprises, is an indomitable yardstick of religious growth, where voluntary principle thrives with no tradition of church-state activities and yet it is undeniably “one nation under God”, “In God we Trust”. 40% of the American population claim to attend weekly religious worship one kind or another. 91% say they believe in God. Church attendance is higher in the southern States than north and coastal States. Gender difference has been noted; as in other parts of the world, traditionally more women attend church than men.

The youth may leave the institutional church but they usually return as they settle down as young families. Unlike other parts of the global church, both lay people and ordained clergy effortlessly switch between denominations / churches; it is true that on a personal note some of Lutheran clergy friends are unhappy about this inequality as their colleagues who teach in Theological Seminaries in the United States are freer to give up their religious affiliation and theological identity without being penalized. Among all major religious traditions, in the 21st century the most depressing exercise is to reflect on the future of Western Christianity! And yet, all across the ecclesial graveyard of the former western Christendom theologians and church growth experts are obsessed with church attendance, new church development seminars etc. More pressing issues such as political unrest, communal strife, etc. keep the churches in Africa, Asia and South America too focused to be preoccupied with this pathological phenomenon of crystal-gazing.

Over three decades ago, when I was a theological student in Edinburgh, Scotland there was an incredible evangelical upsurge at the expense of liberal Christianity, where I felt some pressure to choose between the evangelical Inter Varsity Fellowship and the liberal Student Christian Movement. But, I chose not to be caught in between this family feud. A passionate kind of evangelicalism has advanced in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. This new wave of evangelical expansionist Christianity also spread out to Eastern Europe, Philippines, pacific rim (especially South Korea) and China. Now in the 21st century the older staid evangelicalism has been replaced by charismatic, mega-churches in Africa and North America, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil and Light of the World in Mexico.

As a Christian pastoral leader in The United Church of Canada, the largest Reformed Christian denomination in Canada, the numerically dwindling leftover of the once mighty and mainline Western Church, I am tempted to focus on another, in fact historically much older religion namely Sanatana Dharma, which is euphemistically called by foreigners as Hinduism, whose followers are the least worried or concerned about the extinction of their faith unlike most Western Christians. The bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ, perhaps have an opportunity to learn from this ancient faith community not to panic about the current state of affairs of the church / Christianity however disturbing and disappointing with an aging population, shrinking membership and financial and leadership crises.

As an ordained minister with over thirty years of pastoral experience, certainly it is disheartening to be overly concerned with poor attendance, financial crunching, lack of participation by young families, absence of youth and children which result in an aging population left in the pews unable to carry on the institutional church. As far as I can remember, the church has always been a survival mode, where congregations have been struggling to survive from one scandal to the next: from apartheid in South Africa to civil rights movement in the Bible-belt southern United States, the role of ordained women and the male hierarchy, ( In June, 2006, the Vatican’s top official for promoting Christian unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper warned the Church of England against introducing women bishops! In spite of that, the Episcopalian Church in the USA elected its very first woman, Bishop Katherine Jeffers Schori, as its presiding bishop!), the plague of residential school law suits against all mainline churches in Canada where the issue almost decimated some dioceses, clergy authority and homosexuality, worship styles and so forth. Also I remember my personal agony over reading bestsellers such as Comfortable Pew by a Canadian journalist Pierre Burton, The Rumors of Angels by sociologist Peter Berger and Honest to God by Bishop Robinson of Woolwich along with Bultmann’s Demytholigization and the scandal of liberal theology.

We live an a post-Christian age in the west where 80% of the reasonably healthy people of all ages are involved in some regular physical activities from intensely regimented body-building programs to Sunday morning jogging in the park with their pets and/or to the nearest Tim Horton’s in Canada or Starbuck social gatherings in most urban centers. Even retirement homes and nursing homes have systematic physical activities aimed for the physical wellness of our aged. These institutions have no regular programs for spiritual empowerment except what if offered by volunteer workers such clergy and other pastoral visitors in the community. When I ask older members who languish in these institutions, they re-live the good old days when the churches were packed with worshippers. Whatever happened to Christian fervor? As a full-time paid ‘people watcher’, I have made an interesting observation about out transient demographic reality. An average Canadian family moves every 3 to five years across the nation, North American continent or even globally to Cape Town, Bangalore, or Singapore. Within Canada, when a new young family of four settles down in the city of Sudbury in northern Ontario, the very first day, they would stop at the grocery store, beer and liquor store; they will find out the post office and the bank on the second day and within a week look for the local schools and hospital. 99% of the newcomers will take at least six months to three years to make to notice the local church unless an unforeseen situation happens such an illness, accident or perhaps their visiting parents may choose to attend church on high holydays such as Christmas or Easter! After three years, they would be repeating the same rituals of settling down in another community. Rene Des-cartes would have said to us: “I consume, therefore I am!”.

However, in spite of this and perhaps because of this, Christians would be better of observing the reactions of other religions in the midst of renewal, renovation and resurgence as we need to recapture the greater purpose of the church. As a teacher of World’s Living Religions, I have been observing all major religious traditions. My discovery has been surprising to me and to those with whom I share my experiences in this context. Out of all the major faith traditions, Western Christianity is the only religion that is experiencing seismic distortions, disruptions, heresies, and uncertain future. The prospects of incredible growth potentials for the Christian Church in the South and East are overshadowed by the demise of the old Western Christendom!. Having been preoccupied with survival techniques in the Church for over thirty years, it is refreshing to learn that with the exception of the three Abrahamic and perhaps Buddhist religions, rest of the other religions hardly emphasize membership, attendance at rituals, regular financial contributions or tithes etc. The life of each religion is unique and different; comparisons are difficult if not impossible. But as the overarching pandemic emphasis on the survival of the Church in Europe and North America is so great that Christians need to slow down and learn for others. Referring to the future of Christianity in England where only one per cent of the population shows any interest at all in the life and work of the State church, where the Queen is the official head of the church, the instructor used the term “depressing” every day! From this unpleasant perspective on the future of Christianity in the former western Christendom, as I discussed with the instructor, I would like to explore the day to day activities of Hinduism such as stability, steadfastness, history, tradition, orthodoxy etc. Hinduism does not have to put up with evangelical charlatans and televangelists, new theologies such as womanist, feminist, black, liberation, Dalit etc.

The spiritual and religious manifestations and practices of Sanatana Dharma exist in all imaginable extremes ranging from: