What Do We Mean by Our Book Title, The End of Christianity?

Great looking book!

Hey-- can you answer this question -- what will you be saying, to make a quick response to the inevitable question to you, "What do you think will be the End of Christianity -- it just fades away into secularism, or mutates into something else, or gets absorbed into some other religion?" -- From John S.
I'll be saying the same thing that Hector Avalos does in his book, The End of Biblical Studies. It's time that biblical studies as we know them should end. It's time to treat all ancient documents the same way, favoring none of them in the interests of learning how people in the ancient world thought, but not treating any of them as inspired. Avalos has a chapter in this book that sums up what he wrote. In it he calls for secularism. That's the goal anyway. Whether it takes place or not is the question.

I think all three of your suggestions will take place depending on person and time, something which has been happening since the Enlightenment. There will probably always be pockets of people who embrace some of the Christianities that have previously existed. It's just that those groups will put themselves into the cultural backwaters. That is, so long as there is still something called a "Western Culture." If that becomes mutated into a global identity then Yahweh may even fade out of existence altogether, like Zeus, Thor and Odin have.

0 comments: