November 25, 2003
CRUSADE IN EUROPE:
Fervor and optimism: Scholars are detecting a growing interest in spiritual matters in France and throughout Europe (Uwe Siemon-Netto, 11/29/03, World)
Many Americans think of France as hopelessly godless, yet many young Catholics and Protestants have the fervor and optimism of Rev. LeBlanc. Among
Protestants, the French Reformed Church is no longer a hotbed of extreme left-wing agitation. The new crop of pastors is once again proclaiming the
gospel without political frills. Evangelical congregations are starting up at the rate of one every nine days.France still appears outwardly post-Christian, but a new groundswell is making itself felt. New Bible translations and commentaries are hot-ticket items. Theological issues are creeping into more and more dinner discussions. Catechism classes for grownups have become so popular that some churches now have waiting lists. The influential publication Le Figaro recently ran an eight-part series about the reemergence of Christian intellectuals, who for the last half century had been hiding in cerebral catacombs. The Roman Catholic Church lacks priests--only 25,000 are left in a country of 60 million--yet committed lay leaders have taken over many tasks once performed by clergymen.
The French surge has its counterpart in other European countries.
We've mentioned before that the thought of African evangelicals re-Christianizing France is simply too delicious. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2003 7:41 PM
That'll be some contest between the French African Christians and the sharia crowd.
Nigeria north?
Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 26, 2003 3:07 AMIt is a delicious irony: the prospect of Africa re-evangelizing France. But the article cited here has nothing to do with that, but rather with a beginnings of an awakening among Frenchman.
I've said here on this fine blog several times that I think OJ and others are too intoxicated by demographics. Europe has seen dark days before, let us not forget. The demographics didn't look very good when the plague took one third of the population from Ireland to India; yet hard on the heals of that catastrophe, we had a little event known as the Renaissance.
Posted by: Paul Cella at November 26, 2003 10:37 AMArguably, one of the most important turning points in European history was the supression of the Huguenots in the 17th century. In England the protestsants were the focal point of the opposition to the monarchy. In France, once protestantism was banned and the Huguenots driven into exile, the opposition became completly anti-religious.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 27, 2003 5:18 PM