English
中文There is considerable deliberation as to whether Britain today is still a ‘Christian’ country. Many researchers have relied heavily on measuring how Christian a nation Britain is by such things as church attendance and the prevalence of Christian rituals such as the traditional church marriage, baptism and confirmation services. These have been measured and compared to statistics taken from previous decades to try to determine whether or not Christianity is in decline in Britain. Some would argue that as methods of gathering these statistics have changed over the years; the results obtained from them for comparison against today’s figures cannot be entirely relied upon to be accurate. Others argue that Christianity in Britain cannot accurately be measured by church attendance or ritual observation, but that there is far more to be taken into consideration if we are to gain a clear picture of the values and beliefs of the British public today. Furthermore, opinion poll has indicated that there are many people who do hold religious beliefs but are not members of any religious organisation. (Haralambos and Holborn, 470:2000). This would mean that in effect we cannot measurer the prevalence of Christianity in Britain by how many people attend Christian services or are Church members.
Grace writes that there are few people who would claim to be atheists in Britain and that many claim to believe in God without seeing the need to participate in religious ritual. (Grace, 2: 1994). Badham argues that although the Christian church has seen changes over the last few decades, including a decline in church attendance, the church is still influential in our society. (Badham, ix-xiii:1989). Furthermore, religious belief is not something that can easily be measured. Many people claim to have a belief or relationship with what they term a ‘God’ or a ‘Higher Power’ and do not feel the necessity of belonging to a religious organisation such as a church. (Haralambus and Holburn, 453:2000)
Callum not only argues that all forms of Christian observance are in decline, and have been for the last hundred years, but that the British people are losing their faith in the existence of either ‘God’ or a ‘higher power’. He emphasizes this point by the fact that over 2000,000 people attended a Billy Graham service at London in 1954. This was a peak which was to be followed by a steep drop in religious interest in the 1960s. (Callum, 6:2001). Indeed 1963 is cited by many as the time when Christian belief in Britain began to decline.
This apparent decline in Christian adherence coincided with the publishing of a book entitled ‘Honest to God’ by J. Robinson. The 1960s was a time of great scientific advancement, a turbulent and creative decade when social and moral values were being questioned. The counter-culture of the 60s went hand in hand with the rejection to what was seen by many as the mechanistic and old-fashioned stance of the church. Many found it difficult to relate to religion, which seemed so full of dogma and doctrine.
The 1960s also saw a sexual revolution and a move away to some extent from traditional family values. (Grace, 33:1994). This has meant that not only have people felt free to have sexual partners outside of marriage, but that homosexuality has become more widely accepted. There has been an alteration in general attitudes towards women’s sexual freedom and an acceptance of other religious beliefs. (Callum, 2:2001). This change of attitude to what is and is not regarded as sinful or acceptable behaviour has gone hand in hand with secularisation of Britain. (Ibid. p9)
The author of Honest to God, Dr John A.T. Robinson (at the time the Bishop of Woolwich), had already been the centre of much media hype when acting as a witness in the defence of D.H. Lawrence’s book ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. Therefore the publication of his book, which was preceded by an article in the London Observer newspaper with the title ‘Our image of God Must Go’, led to a rush to buy it. In his book Robinson states that for most people ‘…God has no connection with what really concerns them day to day’ (Robinson, 276:1963), He refers to Tillich’s ‘Shaking of the foundations’, where Tillich describes God as the ‘Ground of our very being’ (Ibid, p9); Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’, which speaks of a form of Christianity that does not depend upon religion, and Rudolf Bultmann’s, ‘New Testament and Mythology’, referring to the ‘unintelligible jargon’ (Ibid, p11) of the New Testament. In short Robinson speaks about the revolution in attitude which is needed by the church if it is to survive. Christianity needs to relate to people’s everyday lives.
What made Britain Christian was the way in which Christianity infused public culture and was adopted by individuals, whether churchgoers or not, in forming their own identities. ( Callum, 8:2001)
Grace describes the period of 1970-1990 as ‘…the Re-emergence of the Sacred’. This was the era of the New Religious movements encompassing many spiritual alternatives to traditional Christianity for those who found the rigidness of Christian beliefs dissatisfactory. (Grace, 36-7:1994).
The radical reforms of the 1980s carried out by Margaret Thatcher’s government saw the church defending the needs of the working classes. This saw the General Synod of the Church of England at issue with the government on the conditions of poverty in Britain’s inner cities. (Haralambos and Holborn, 454:2000). The report ‘Faith in the City’ addressed the governments need to address poverty and social inclusion in the inner cities, and emphasised that human rights cannot be separated from religious beliefs and practice.
Their legitimate concern to practise their religion, and to preserve their religious and cultural identity, is not separable from their right to decent housing, employment, education and social provision. (Faith in the city, 1985)
In the past the church had a great deal of influence on the matters of state, including involvement in political, social and educational policies. (Haralambus and Holborn, 453:2000). Although the involvement in social policy, health and welfare prior to the 1990s was largely a responsibility of the church rather than the state, (Lovell and Cordeaux, 56:1999), most would argue that these are still issues which are fundamental to the concerns of all Christian people. However, the fact that in these times the Church in effect had more power may have had an influence on the number of people attending church. In 1944, the Education Act, which entitled all children to a free education, continued to support the importance of Christian worship by making it compulsory in schools unless there was parental objection. (Lovell and Cordeaux, 69:1999). Today the Church of England still has the Queen at its head as well as that of the state, indicating that it still has a recognised role in our society. (Haralambus and Holborn,, 453:2000)
The 1990s saw a surge of interest in environmental issues. These were concerns which were also highlighted by New Age movements, which began to emerge in the 1970s. Environmental issues and issues concerning human and animal rights were becoming the concern of both the government and the church. We will discuss later how liberation theology has highlighted how politics and religion are inextricably linked in our world today.
Government policy seems more and more concerned with issues related to our environment and to aiding poorer countries in their struggle against such factors as famine, Aids and poverty. The issue of fair trade is now becoming headline news and more and more people are becoming aware that whilst the majority of those living in the so-called First World, live in relative comfort, many in the so-called Third World are living in abject poverty. At the moment the rules of world trade are stacked in favour of the rich countries, and poor countries are underrepresented in the ‘World Trade Organization’, which is one of the most powerful organizations governing trade. (CAFOD)
Organisations such as FAIRTRADE, OXFAM and NEWS (Network of the European World Shops) have helped raise public awareness as to how by changing some of our shopping choices we can help those people living in poverty by paying just a few pence more for fair trade products. But part of the problem faced by many countries in the Third World is that in order to survive farmers are being forced to produce cash crops rather that food for their own consumption. (Barratt Brown, 6:1993)
Liberation theologians draw their inspiration from scripture. For example, in Isiah 58.7, the theme of social justice is addressed and the message is that the rich have a clear duty to assist the poor. (Barton and Muddiman, 480:2001), and in Matthew 25.35-36, Jesus’ discourse on the Last Judgement makes it clear that the duty of humankind is to ‘…love one’s neighbours, especially the marginalized’. (Ibid, p878)
Liberation theology emphasizes that if we are to see an end to poverty, the struggle needs to be worldwide. This is because the economies of the world are inextricably linked, so that no country can be said to be insulated from the globalization that makes the poor countries poorer and the wealthy countries wealthier. There is no easy solution to these problems and simply giving aid is not enough, but what is needed is a long-term commitment to empowering these poorer nations to liberate themselves from oppression.
Liberation theology has always been concerned with speaking on behalf of the oppressed, the poor, the marginalised and the powerless in society. It continues to speak out for the voiceless including the planet earth; the environment; creation and animals as well as humanity. Globalization has meant that suddenly the world seems so much smaller and there is a realization that everything is interconnected, so that as ‘stewards’ of the earth, human beings have a responsibility to take care of the planet and not destroy it.
Brown argues that Christianity in Britain is in effect ‘dead’. He bases his argument on the fact that British people, in large numbers, have ceased to go to church, have their children baptised or marry in church. Furthermore, in the later half of the twentieth century there has been a decline in numbers of those attending Sunday school, attending Confirmation classes and in general attending church. (Brown, 1:2001) But are these factors a reliable indication of the state of Christianity in Britain today?
Grace points out that secularisation was in evidence both prior and post world war two. However, secularisation is not a straight forward concept. There are many factors to consider when trying to take account of whether Christianity is on the wane in Britain. For example the influx of immigrants has led to our country being labelled as a multi-faith community, but Christianity still remains the dominant religion of this country.(Badham, xiii:1989). Although many feel that how often a person attends church or reads their bible is an indication of whether or not they are a Christian, others would argue that you can still be a Christian if you believe in God and more importantly if you live your life by Christian values. As is highlighted by the document ‘Faith in the city’, politics and religion have become inextricably linked and a person’s attitude towards his or her fellow man or woman, creatures and environment are more a measure of his or her Christian values and beliefs than church attendance or observance of rite and ceremony.
Our British government is continually concerned with policies which concern the environment, the welfare state, aid to poorer countries and a fair and just society for all no matter what their creed, sex, social standing or religious beliefs. Year on year the British people respond to appeals to donate their money and labour to helping others in both this country and abroad. As a nation we are becoming more and more aware of how the way we live our lives, by conserving energy, recycling refuse and paying more for consumer goods like coffee can all contribute to our fellow human kind’s future, the animal kingdom and the environment. Secular issues are bound together with issues which concern the Church and the government. I would argue that despite the fact that Church attendance, on the face of it, seems to have gone down, Britain is still a Christian country. This can be summed up in a quote taken from the article ‘Faith in the city;;-
…the British people are by a great majority a believing people, to the extent that some 70 per cent of the population claim belief in God or in some sort of supernatural being…These beliefs, though they testify to a strong substratum of religion in British society, go along with widespread rejection of institutional religion… (Faith in the city, 1985)
So in conclusion, the argument that Christianity in British society is in decline, when founded on the evidence of societies lack of adherence to ‘doctrine and dogma’ and to ‘ritual and ceremony’ can be justified. But, these things alone are not a true measure of what it means to be a Christian in Britain today. Christianity is not something that can be accurately measured but through the action of British people through both government and church they are clearly still observable in this country.
