Can Christianity Find It’s Way in the New Roman Empire? - Part 3

The article continues to make a point that Christianity as a result of the cultural revolution now defines it’s mission primarily in terms of conflict with the culture and expresses itself almost exclusively in the language of loss, disappointment, anger, resentment and a desire for conquest. They contend that Christianity is not competing with rival faiths but is now dealing with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities where the ideas of a single religious truth seem increasingly passé.

For committed Christians, this is a painful truth. Could the Faith be undermined from within? The authors have failed to see that Christianity through the influence of the mass media culture now reflects the same values and philosophies that are communicated through today’s media culture. In some ways, the market-driven church is helping to spread a new form of Christianity which could be in conflict with traditional Biblical values. By doing so, perhaps some Christians may be indirectly helping to change the culture into something that can undermine the authentic authority of the Christian faith.

And, finally, Douthat argues that Christianity needs to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom and must now deal with a more diverse and complicated society and culture of the Roman Empire where the seeds of Christianity began to flourish some 2,000 years ago. But I say, if that’s going to happen, we are going to have to find our way in this new Roman Empire. And forget about battling the culture or even the media culture. We must first examine what we believe and why we believe it. We are not going to change the world until we are willing to change ourselves. That means coming to terms with the seeds of the cultural revolution, political and religious conservatism, and the pseudo-Christian spiritualities that seem to be spreading from within.