Religious faith in Europe, on the decline?

Back in the October edition of First Things Magazine, Richard John Neuhaus gave a brilliant analysis of the nature of religious devotion in the so-called "New Europe" (named after Donald Rumsfeld's remark), which is mostly referring to Eastern Europe. In particular it focuses on Poland.

Neuhaus makes an interesting observation that religious devotion in Poland is on the rise, and this is challenging the old notion that Europe by and large is secularist in nature. Yet Neuhaus also mentions that "[o]bservers are struck by the small but dynamic movements of Christian renewal in, for example, France and Germany. Moreover, some studies suggest that the general population of western Europe is not as secular as many think."

I myself have challenged this notion of a secularist Europe many times on this blog, and it seems that my basic arguments have support elsewhere.

In particular, I turn to Andrew Greeley's insightful article "Religious Decline in Europe?", in which he exposes many of the cliches about religious devotion on the continent. His basic argument is that the status of religion in Europe is far more complex than the mainstream media portrays. As he summarizes:

[Religion] has declined in some countries (France, Britain, the Netherlands), has increased in other countries (Russia, Latvia, Slovenia, Hungary), remains high and stable in yet other countries (Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Austria), stable and diffuse in still other countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal) and stable and low in yet other countries (Scandinavia, the former East Germany, the Czech Republic).

I fully agree with Greeley on this. Religion is by no means finished in Europe. Like Neuhaus, Greeley has also written about the religious revivals taking place in Eastern Europe. So while I may not agree with Greeley's progressive views, I certainly admire his spirit in challenging all the cliches about religion in modern society. For example, He has also exposed many of the myths concerning the sex abuse scandals within the priesthood, among other things.

I certainly do not wish to say that everything is all good with concerns to religious devotion in Europe. What I am saying is that things are not as bad it may appear at first sight. There's still plenty of evangelizing work that needs to be done. However, I prefer to see the glass as half full in this respect; as opposed to the commonly portrayed perception of the glass largely being empty with only three drops of water left.

That most certainly is the image you would get if you simply go by accounts like William Murchinson's overly pessimistic "Vanishing Sea of Faith: European Islam & the Doubtful Future of Christian Europe". Many of Murchinson's arguments are easily refuted by Greeley(especially the ones about low church attendance rates). Murchinson relies heavily on George Wiegel's The Cube and the Cathedral as a source for his doom and gloom sentiments.

Yet Wiegel himself admits that the younger generations of Europe are more openly expressing their religious faith; as could be seen just this year by their large numbers both at John Paul II's funeral in Rome and Benedict XVI's visit to Colonge for World Youth Day. It's only a question how much more damage will the secularist generation of '68 cause before the new generation takes command. This only proves my basic point(backed up by Neuhaus, Greeley, and others) that the situation is far more complex, and that the Christian faith is still a force to reckon with in Europe.

I'll let Greeley give the final word:

"M. Voltaire and his colleagues confidently predicted the quick end of religion in Europe. They were wrong. A quarter millennium later, their successors are still wrong. Religion—imperfect, troubled, always changing, conflicted, always surviving, always under assault—still manages to hang on. Those who know more about such things than I do tell me that modernity is finished."

Amen to that!



**Final Note: I should also note that Neuhaus' article is not simply about religious decline/revival in the "New Europe". It also stresses the conflict within Poland between two major camps: one envisioning a Poland embracing its historical heritage, which is based in the Catholic faith; and those advocating a more universalist and secularist society(whose supposed utopia will be the European Union). This is certainly a struggle all nations in Europe must face. Just wanted to bring this to attention.