Werner Ustorf - Böcker

Christendom lasted for over a thousand years in Western Europe, and we are still living in its shadow. For over two centuries this social and religious order has been in decline. Enforced religious unity has given way to increasing pluralism, and since 1960 this process has spectacularly accelerated. In this 2003 book, historians, sociologists and theologians from six countries answer two central questions: what is the religious condition of Western Europe at the start of the twenty-first century, and how and why did Christendom decline? Beginning by overviewing the more recent situation, the authors then go back into the past, tracing the course of events in England, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and showing how the fate of Christendom is reflected in changing attitudes to death and to technology, and in the evolution of religious language. They reveal a pattern more complex and ambiguous than many of the conventional narratives will admit.

Christendom lasted for over a thousand years in Western Europe, and we are still living in its shadow. For over two centuries this social and religious order has been in decline. Enforced religious unity has given way to increasing pluralism, and since 1960 this process has spectacularly accelerated. In this 2003 book, historians, sociologists and theologians from six countries answer two central questions: what is the religious condition of Western Europe at the start of the twenty-first century, and how and why did Christendom decline? Beginning by overviewing the more recent situation, the authors then go back into the past, tracing the course of events in England, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and showing how the fate of Christendom is reflected in changing attitudes to death and to technology, and in the evolution of religious language. They reveal a pattern more complex and ambiguous than many of the conventional narratives will admit.

The Christian experience in modern Europe is fragmented. It shows great diversity in various geographical contexts and, historically, a considerable alternation of extremes, high or low tides of engagement. One aspect of the Christianity in Europe's past is its mission history. The spread of Christianity from the West -- as one of its most important results -- into the continents of the Global South has been deeply ambivalent in character. On the one hand, the mission from the West helped to build the historical foundations for Christian education, "adolescence" and maturation to responsible "adulthood" in a global, diverse, segregated and pluralistic world. As a mature global player, Christianity was in a prime position to contribute to peaceful conflict resolution, in the religious, social and political fields. On the other hand, the darkness and utter insufficiency of the encounter between the European, Christian "self" and the many "others" worldwide brought along problematic projections of different beliefs attacked in a hostile way as "alien" and, inevitably, as "conquered". The consequences, particularly for the "primal other" -- the indigenous people -- were often disastrous. Werner Ustorf has been a leading missiologist worldwide for thirty years. This book not only analyses the interaction between mission and individual, the construction of the "self" and the "other" in a mission context, but also proves the analytical strength of theology in conceptualizing future Christian experiences in Europe. Ustorf illustrates that apart from traditional dimension of faith, a non-religious interpretation and critical trust in transcendence, is crucial for the formation of the new interculturation of Christianity in Europe. Thus, this book demonstrates how mission history can be transformed to a research concept for a global and pluralistic Christianity.

When German missiologists started to re-import their dream of a dominant Christianity to central Europe, there were more similarities between the missionary and the national socialist utopias than the post-war consensus would like to admit. Fascism to many missiologists became the desired breaking point of modernity, a revival of the Volk's deep emotions and a breakthrough of the archaic spirituality they had long been waiting for. Upon this tide they wanted to sail and conquer new territories for Christ. This study, therefore, will address the issue of mission and Nazism primarily in the light of the struggle of Christianity for a place or a home within and vis-a-vis the culture of the West as it was approaching the end of modernity.

The massive changes of Christianity during the 20th century raise the perennial question about its identity in a new, radical form. The author addresses the question of identity and asks how globalisation, religious pluralism, and the polycentric nature of Christianity affect Christian self-identification and theological reflection. First, religious life and theological reflection among believers in Jesus from Muslim and Hindu background in South Asia is presented in two empirical studies. Secondly, the findings are analysed and interpreted within a broad theoretical framework, drawing on models for syncretistic processes from history of religions, cultural anthropology, and Christian theology. Finally, the study concludes with a systematic-theological perspective on the interreligious hermeneutics underlying the changes of Christianity and discusses how interreligious hermeneutics might inform missiology as well as Christian theologies of religions and how this might challenge our understanding of the church’s nature and mission. In conclusion, it is argued that a global, polycentric Christianity can be interpreted as fellowship created by the Spirit and centred on Christ.