The Secularization of the Church

I was in Paris recently visiting a friend. Since this was my first time there, I did all the “haftas” that are required of tourists – the Louvre, Eiffel tower, etc. However, I would have to say the most enjoyable part of the trip was visiting the countless churches and cathedrals in and around the city. I must have gone to at least 12 churches in the week I was there. Granted, I am a history nut, so these massive buildings hold a romanticism of sorts for me.

European cathedrals are impressive. Built during a time where Europe was known as “Christendom”, these massive structures were the center of the lives of the people. Built as places of worship, as schools, as seminaries, as gathering places, pilgrimmage destinations; they are beautiful. They span hundreds of years, showing both the historical architectural differences, but also the cultural changes as well. Form followed function, promting the architecture to develop to provide for the necessities of church life.

In a time where most people couldn’t read, churches used stained glass as a method of teaching, as well as a beautiful way to provide light into the sanctuary. The most impressive cathedrals in Paris in this respect are St. Chapelle (not 2 blocks from Notre dame), and Chartes (about an hour from Paris). St. Chapelle has over 1000 stained glass windows broken into roughly 20 large sections. Each section tells the story of a particular book in the Bible. There is one for Genesis, one for Exodus, one for each of the major prophets. Built to house the supposed Crown of Thorns, the three large sections behind the alter beautifully depict the Passion of Christ. Chartes cathedral contains the best collection of Medieval stained glass in Europe – 85% of it dates to the 12th and 13th centuries! Bigger than the Notre Dame cathedral (which took over 200 years to build), Chartes was built in a single generation of 60 years! The 3 rose windows tell the story of Christ’s Passion and His second coming. Not only the windows, but these cathedrals are ornately decorated with statues of the apostles, telling stories about creation, judgement, redemption, and glorification. They are libraries, with thousands of books in the forms of windows and carvings that one could pour over for years (In fact, British historian Malcolm Miller moved to Chartes over 50 years ago, has written books on Chartes, and is still “reading”).

Now, no matter your quarrels with the theology, these churches were built by people who had a deep desire to pass on their belief system to the next generation. In fact, for 200 years, Chartes was the major learning center in France! As historian Niall Ferguson tells us, these cathedrals were built by people who fought wars over theology, who sent ships out to the new world to proselytize the heathen, and who argued passionately about their faith.

However as I wandered through the halls of these once great cathedrals, I was astonished to see their purpose now. These churches were now, thanks to people like me, just tourist attractions. These churches have tour guides, they have pamphlets, they even have those little machines that will smash a penny into a souvenir of the chapel! In France less than 5% of the people attend a weekly worship service. The story is true across all the rest of Europe. How did the defenders of the Christian faith, countries that meticulously copied Scripture for hundreds of years to provide us with the near-exact copies we have today, who brought us all the men of the Reformation, how did their world become so utterly secular?

In France, it all started with the French Revolution. The “Church” was equated with the king, who was thought of as a divine right ruler, placed on his throne by God. However, one look at the palace of Versailles and the church there (where Louis XIV would kneel in the balcony every morning and have all the dukes on the floor below, worshipping Louis worshipping God), and one can see why there was a revolution. As a result of rebellion against the monarchy and everything it stood for (i.e., the “Church”), the revolution was entirely secular. In fact, the people mistook the statues of the 28 kings of Judah (perched a hundred feet off the ground at Notre Dame) as the kings of France and beheaded the statues! A statue of the “Goddess of Reason” was installed at Notre Dame as the new object of worship. A cathedral under construction at the time was converted into the “Pantheon” to celebrate “France” and all the heroes who died for her.

Nowadays, the only thing that keeps these churches alive is the fact that they are historical monuments and are maintained by the French government. Even now, they have to solicit donations just for maintenence! Al Mohler rightly notes that

architecture and real estate are not the truly important issues. The most urgent issue is the abandonment of Christian commitment…

How did this happen? And can it happen to us? In the early 20th century, J. Gresham Machen warned in his book Christianity and Liberalism the perils that lie in wait when we put anything other than the cross of Christ as central. In France (and in many circles in America today), social justice was placed as central. The people resented (probably rightly so) living in poverty and starvation while the king lived a life of luxury. And while social justice is a good thing (Jesus more than anyone commands to us our responsibility to the poor and oppressed), they took something that was good and made it central. There were probably many other reasons for the secularization, but they all resulted with taking something good, and making it ultimate.

In the US today, we can see this on both sides. Liberals want to make social justice ultimate. Fundamentalists (used in a broad sense) want to make morality ultimate. Both will result in a loss of life and vitality. Only the person and work of Christ are to be central and ultimate. Without that, we will be nothing more than hollow corpses of our former likeness.

Press on, brothers and sisters.

-oligopistis

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~ by oligopistis on May 8, 2007.