In 1882, German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche penned his seminal work The Gay Science. In a section dubbed ‘The Parable of the Madman,’ he wrote one of the most famous sentences in literature.
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
The sentiment went on to become a rallying cry for secularist and atheist activists. Society had moved beyond religion. Science could explain almost everything. We no longer need God – He is dead.
But Nietzsche’s ‘God is Dead’ passage is also one of the most misquoted – or rather underquoted – passages. Too often, the remainder of his ‘heretical’ idea is omitted. Here it is:
“How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us – for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.”
Nietzsche was seeing his world move beyond Christendom in real time, and he was concerned; not because God was ‘dead’—the very notion of truth itself appeared to be under fire. Nietzsche was worried about what might come next … and the horrors of the early 20th century which followed confirmed his fears. The Enlightenment had failed to usher in a new age of reason. Madness had instead followed.
But fast forward to the 21st century, and the Western world is still firmly ‘post-Christian’. But as Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition told John Dickson on a recent Undeceptions episode, “There are different forms of secularism, and what it looks like to be ‘after Christendom’, is very different in different contexts.”
Despite—or perhaps in light of—these differences, experts like Hansen note that the global church can still engage with a firmly secular society – but not in the way one might expect.
Cultural Apologetics
According to Hansen, a key way for the church to engage its world is through what he calls “cultural apologetics.” Cultural apologetics asks: “What’s the effect on my culture? Does Christianity lead to goodness? Does it make the world a better place? And for that matter, where does our definition of goodness even come from?”
This notion goes beyond just head knowledge or winning arguments in soundbites. It looks at the goodness—not just the rightness— of lived Christianity.
Dr Joshua Chatraw, associate professor of Divinity at Stamford University, notes that C.S. Lewis was keenly aware of this requirement of apologetics a century ago.
“He stressed that the role of the apologist was to give timeless truth in the particular language of their own day, and the need to translate everything so the common person can understand,” Joshua said, speaking on Undeceptions. “If we can’t do that, we don’t really even understand what we’re talking about anyway.”
“The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world: the dreaming world is judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason, I am certain that in passing from the scientific point of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” C.S. Lewis
History testifies to Christians entering into the cultures around them, maintaining conviction and compassion – just as Jesus did. They don’t follow a tribal God tied to one society. They claim to follow the Lord of the whole world, who loves people from every way of life. Being a citizen of Christ’s kingdom after Christendom means being a good guest in the culture – and living by example, allowing others to see its goodness.
A Changing Tide
There might be a larger audience for this new approach to apologetics than many Christians might expect.
For years, the story about religion in the West has been pretty straightforward: belief is in decline, the “nones” are rising, and secularism is marching on. But some new data from the last year or so has complicated that storyline a little. Pew Research, for instance, recently released findings from a massive survey of more than 35,000 Americans. The decline of Christianity, they say, has slowed — maybe even levelled off. The number of people ticking “no religion” has tapered, and the percentage identifying as Christian has nudged upward ever so slightly. Now, researchers are quick to say this isn’t a reversal. Young adults are still far less religious than their parents or grandparents, and there’s no sign they’ll become more devout as they age.
Ryan Burge — one of the most reliable analysts of religious data — notes that Generation Z remains the least religious generation in American history. So no talk of a “revival” just yet.
Still, some experts suggest we might be seeing a natural ceiling to how secular a society can get — that most of the people who were going to drift away from religion have already done so. And across the Atlantic, there’s another odd data point: Bible sales in Britain have almost doubled in the past five years, thanks largely, it seems, to a renewed spiritual curiosity among Gen Z.
So, is this the start of something new? It’s too early to tell. But after decades of steady decline, the religious weather pattern is at least showing some strange and interesting clouds. We may have moved beyond Christendom – but where we go next is anybody’s guess. And God is very much alive and a part of that journey.
Adapted by Alasdair Belling from Undeceptions episode 164 ‘After Christendom’. Listen here.
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