DietoWorms wrote:

While Christianity is mostly dead in Europe, and starting to lose ground in North America, Africa is seeing steady and massive growth in the number of believers.

Personally, I predict we will see massive growth in Christianity in China, so that in 50 years China will be the most Christian country in the world.

DoW

All this is true at this juncture. Christianity is a modernizing force in Asia and Africa, like cell phones, business suits and learning English, as well as having spiritual value. But in the west, Christianity is considered old fashioned and out of touch with peoples' lives and needs. Two nations that had the highest church attendance in Europe - Poland and Ireland - saw mass attendance drop like a rock once they joined the EU and became affluent. From all accounts I have read about China, people are turning to religion out of disillusionment with communism but here in the west (esp in Quebec) people are turning to secularism out of disillusionment with Christianity.

A strong case can be made that once a society reaches a certain level of affluence and relative comfort - organized Christianity takes a hit. When people aren't consumed with fear over whether they will have a next meal, whether their children will live to be 5 years old, whether militia in the ethnic group across the valley will kill them or whether they will be taken into the night by secret police, church attendance seems to drop.

At some point Africa and China may also reach this level of affluence; for their sake I hope so. I think they will reach similar levels of education and income as Europeans, Australians and North Americans and will assume similar patterns of life. The focus of Christian activity may move somewhere else, or maybe by then hopefully, the church will find a way to speak to people in modern society in a way that is both engaging and transforming.

maplewood wrote:

I think that we need to consider certain trends in the West/North which are attempting to re-sacralize life.

Some of the trends to re-sacralize life stems from the failure of secularization and affluence to answer some of life's deepest questions.

Absolutely.

I think the big difference is that this re-sacralization (if that is a word) is that it isn't a movement to get bums in pews on Sunday. It seems to be mostly apart from the institutional church, very informal and often eclectic in belief. 

So I wouldn't expect empty churches to become what they were in the 1950s but saying that Christianity is dead in the west is premature as well IMHO.