Is Australia a Christian nation?

• "It needs to be remembered that the Australian flag unites the three Christian crosses of England, Ireland and Scotland in the Union Jack — the Christian crosses of St George, St Patrick and St Andrew — with the Southern Cross. Indeed, it is hard to imagine the flag of any country with a more graphic Christian significance." - Dr. Francis Nigel Lee

Why does it matter what I believe?

The Enlightenment: 17th to the Middle of the 20th Century

1. Immanence takes precedence over transcendence...

2. Light of reason dethroned the church as the source of authority…

3. Revolution in philosophy - Bacon, Descartes, Kant…

4. Revolution in science - Aristotle overturned, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton...

Modernity/Enlightenment

1. Era of conquest and control

2. Age of the machine

3. Age of reason/analysis

4. Age of secular science – process and progress

5. Aspired for absolute of objectivity

Modernity/Enlightenment

6. Age of critical evaluation

7. Modern nation-state organization

8. Age of individualism/autonomy

9. Age of Protestantism institutional religion

10. Age of capitalism/consumerism

Secularisation …. – Berger – secularisation = ‘process by which

sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols’ (The Social Reality of Religion 1973:113)

– Wilson ‘ process by which religious institutions, actions and consciousness lose their significance’ (Religion in Sociological Perspective 1982: 149)

Secularism – 3 categories

• secularization as differentiation of

the secular spheres from religious

institutions and norms

• Secularization as a decline of religious beliefs and practices

• secularization as marginalization of religion to a privatized sphere

José Casanova

• science and technology promotes an anthropocentric understanding

• A ‘disenchanted’ world through causality

• religious organizations lose their control over law, politics, public welfare, education and science

• religion becomes a private matter

Multiculturalism – Pluralism and individualistic autonomy

1. Diversity - Tower of Babel to the final rebellion under the lawless man...

2. Tolerance - aspect of common grace that renders community/society possible…

3. Postmodern - rejection of standards to make truth judgments about culture, religion, values...

Crisis in Worldview

1. The Death of Modernity – the death of the positive dynamic of the Enlightenment has been in process since the mid 1960ies

2. The Rise of Postmodernity – the impact of the new worldview taking over the soul

3. The Present Crisis of Terrorism & Moral Disintegration

Postmodernity

1. Multiculturalism - new agenda, social pragmatism...

2. Globalization - every culture has its story…no overarching story to bind all the cultural stories together…

3. Mass Media - agenda of the media elites…4. University - ensconced at all levels...5. Political Arena - agenda for education...

The Church in Crisis1. The Movement Inward - Evangelicalism is

now one’s personal experience…no longer any cognitive dissonance with our culture…sense of truth and character lost… theology banished to religious aspect of life…

2. Today’s Heroes - the therapist, the CEO... therapeutic society… nervous search for true self…self-absorption..

3. Loss of Truth - shift from Theocentric to self-centered worship…psychologized preaching, pragmatism…

Secularism and Church Attendance in Europe

• 29 percent of people regularly attended church across the Continent, and 40 percent never attended. European Christianity is by no means uniform.

• In Europe, 18.2 percent of the population is unaffiliated with any belief system.

• The historical developments in each country have led to very different results.

Secularism and Church Attendance in the UK

Religion Number %

Christian 42,079,000 71.6%

No religion 9,104,000 15.5%

Muslim 1,591,000 2.7%

Hindu 559,000 1.0%

Sikh 336,000 0.6%

Jewish 267,000 0.5%

Buddhist 152,000 0.3%

Other religion 179,000 0.3%

Not stated 4,289,000 7.3%

Total religious 45,163,000 76.8%

UK

Secularism and Church Attendance in the USA

Secularism arose in Australia but was resisted in Southern U.S.

• People were taught God’s Word• People trusted God’s Word• People actively shared God’s Word• People were not shamed of the gospel.

Whydoes it matter WHAT you believe

as long as it WORKS for

you?

Reasons WhyThis Is A Really Good Question

Why does it matter WHAT you believe…as long as it WORKS FOR

YOU?This question reflects tolerance for different belief systems.

1

This question

reflects the value of

personal experience

and relationships.

2

Why does it matter WHAT you believe…as long as it WORKS FOR

YOU?

Reasons WhyThis Is A Really Good Question

This question reflects tolerance for different belief systems.

1

Does it matter what you believe?

• Are all beliefs Are all beliefs equal?equal?

• Are all beliefs Are all beliefs to be to be tolerated?tolerated?

Is Australia a Christian country?

Australia created out of the belligerence of

• Roman Catholicism

• Secularism

• The evangelical protestant church

The proportion of Australians identifying Christianity as their

religion has been declining over the last century – from 96% in 1911 to 61.1% in the 2011 Census. Over the last

decade, Christianity in Australia has declined from 68% to

61.1%.

THERE ARE LESS THAN 2% OF AUSTRALIANS ATTENDING EVANGELICAL CHURCHES

2011 17.1 %

25.3% 18.7 % 61.1 % 21,507,700

Census year

Anglican CatholicOther

ChristianBaptist

Total population counted

attendance 170,000 765,000 400,000 112,000 21,507,700

evangelical 90,000 200,000 70,000 360,000

THE DRIFTING

COUNTRY HAS A DRIFTING

CHURCH

To Desecularisation • Berger – ‘desecularisation’ – the re-

emergence of ‘furious, supernaturalist, fundamentalist or conservative expressions of religion in politics/public life’ (1999: 6)

• Habermas – ‘a postsecular self-understanding of society as a whole… the vigorous continuation of religion in a continually secularising environment …’ (2005; 26)

Post-secularism

• missionary expansion as conservative groups expand

• fastest-growing religious movements are fundamentalist, combative to the modern world or withdraw from it into isolation.

• global conflicts caused by Islam are making people rethink Christian perspectives (Notre Dame 8th Jan 2015

A. Christianity is still Australia’s cultural heritage

Religion – one factor amongst others

Time and space – think about calendars, seasons, festivals, holidays, weeks and weekends (timetables)

The physical and cultural environment

– a familiar, taken-for-granted skyline

The ANZAC influence

B. Christianity is still Australia’s public utility

Australians embrace it when they need it:

hatches, matches and dispatches.

Australians defend it in emergencies:

our “way of life” in times of conflict

Australians own it in the census:

61% tick the box each census, and affirm denominational allegiances.

C. Christianity is still Australia’s preferred option

Australians prefer new arrivals to uphold cultural norms - P.M. John Howard: “if you don’t like it, go somewhere else”

Australians resent new arrivals imposing opposing beliefs - Cronulla riots, reaction to Lakemba protests, and the Burka, Niqab and Hajib contentions.

Britains may believe but not belong.

Aussies may belong but not believe

What do you believe?What do you believe?I believe what my church believes.I believe what my church believes.What does your church believe?What does your church believe?They believe what I believe.They believe what I believe.What do you both believe? What do you both believe? The same thing.The same thing.

Why does it matter WHAT you believe

as long as it WORKS

for you?

Response 1

WHAT WHAT I really I really believe has believe has an affect on an affect on the way I the way I live.live.

If I really believe people are created in the image of God, I will treat them with respect.

…even my “enemies”

…even those who need my help

Would you tell this guy that it doesn’t matter what he believes as long as it works for him?

Why does it matter WHAT you believe

as long as it WORKS

for you?

Response 2

People have People have a right to a right to believe believe whatever whatever they want to they want to believe believe

……but not all but not all beliefs are beliefs are equally equally valid. valid.

 5 January 1975

Tasman Bridge Hobart

Why does it matter WHAT you believe

as long as it WORKS

for you?

Response 3

My beliefs may My beliefs may be working for be working for me now…me now…

but there will but there will be serious be serious consequences consequences if my beliefs if my beliefs turn out to be turn out to be wrong in the wrong in the end.end.

There is a way There is a way that seems right to a man, that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.but in the end it leads to death.

Proverbs 14:12

mattered mattered …and Worked.…and Worked.

WHAT the first Christians believed

1 Corinthians 151) Now, brothers,     I want to remind you of the gospel 

I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 

2)  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 

1 Corinthians 15

3) For what I received      I passed on to you as of first importance: 

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4)  that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day 

according to the Scriptures,5)    and 

that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 

Romans 10:9  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

The Church: an Alternative Culture

Matthew 5:13-161. Salt of the Earth – to become foolish2. Light of the World – represent 

kingdom salvation to the world3. City Set on a Hill – issue is seen or 

not seen4. Live in Such a Way that the Kingdom 

Will Be Manifested 

Point of Contact for the Gospel

1. Inescapable - Sensus Deitatis

2. All men know their guilt (worthy of 

death) & that they are creatures 

3. Agency of Word and Spirit in 

regeneration 

4. Epistemologically - nothing in common 

5. Metaphysically - everything in common 

6. Moral Point of Contact - Judgment, 

Repent

Implications for Evangelism & Apologetics

1. God redemptively engages people in their history by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

2. There must be a faith community that demonstrates that the gospel is true in practice and thus in reality.

3. By the use of redemptive history we must show  the narrative is compelling & coherent on its own terms.

4. Our faith narrative must be presented as encompassing all of life experience.

5.  We must honestly & fully hear other faiths.

6. The gospel should be presented without resort to verbal violence against others.

Why