Whirlpools of silence

 Nenneman's book, The New Birth of Christianity: why religion persists in a scientific age, is not an easy read. But nothing that's worth it is easy, right? Hmm. I've now read through to Chapter 5. 

Chapter 2, "Americans and their religious beliefs and practices at the close of the twentieth century", aims to give us a picture of how "religion endures" (p. 13) despite huge changes in material circumstances. Here are some points I found interesting.

CHURCH-GOING AFTER WW2

Nenneman writes: "After the Second World War, a generation of Americans wanted to forget both the war and the Depression that preceded it; they wanted to establish the outward symbols of stable living once again, and the church was one such symbol... The fifties were a decade of substantial increase in churchgoing and church membership. The content of that activity is another matter; but the façade looked stronger than ever" (p. 17).

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN RECENT TIMES

Three developments -- Nenneman uses the word "forces" (p. 18) -- appear to have "weakened" (ibid) the role and influence of the church:

1. Secularization, i.e. "the process of modernization that has crept over the Western world for at least two hundred years" (p. 19). This includes "modern technology and Western business organization" (ibid) and an "insistence on objectivity and measurement" (p. 20).

2. Privatization, i.e. the separation of "public and private activity" (p. 20), the result being a tendency towards inwardness (self) and the diminishment of the public or communal role of church in nurturing "ethics and morality", "concern for one's less fortunate neighbours" and opportunities to "tame the passions" (p. 21-22). As one commentator observed: "the family and the church have been 'the two strongest supports which traditionally undergirded people's private lives and tied them into a wider public world'" (p. 22).

3. Pluralization, i.e. "extension of choice" or the proliferation of diverse ways of thinking which "compete for our time and thought" (p. 22), including "mass movements" (p. 23) which sweep the public up in their arms.

On the other side of the coin, Nenneman notes that Americans in the 1990s (when his book was published) were still sticking to their religious beliefs, even though  the majority relied "on themselves to solve their problems rather than an outside power" (p. 27). Additionally, he observed a "yearning for spirituality", quoting a British Broadcasting Corporation spokesperson who said: "In the noisiest society the world has ever known, people are creating whirlpools of silence" (p. 28).

Isn't that lovely?

Julie Swannell

PS For me, the highlight of this chapter is the reference to Severin Simonsen (p. 21), a Methodist minister who became a Christian Science practitioner after a wonderful healing in the late 1890s. We read Mr. Simonsen's book in Jan 2018 - check out the blog posts back then. I love his book.