Faith in Europe: Is there hope?

by Chris Chatteris SJ · December 2, 2016

That the peoples of Europe may rediscover the beauty, goodness, and truth of the Gospel which gives joy and hope to life – this is pope’s missionary intention for December

Father Henri de Lubac SJ once said: “Industrial civilisations are naturally atheistic, and agricultural civilisations are naturally pagan. Faith in the true God is always a victory.”

It does seem as if faith is on the losing side at the moment in Europe. Of course nothing is inevitable and the decline and revival of faith has happened before in many times and places in the long history of Christianity, particularly in France.

There is, however, a question lurking below the surface here. It is whether modern life, with all its materialist allurements, leads inevitably towards loss of faith.

Those who question this idea often cite the United States as a very modern country in which faith is still strong. Sceptics suggest, however, that even the US is changing and this can be seen in the remarkable statistical rise of the so-called “Nones”, those who, when asked what religion they profess, reply, “None”. So maybe more material things do generally lead to weaker faith.

Another underlying assumption is that the march of technological progress will continue to improve the standard of living of our world. But according to Jared Diamond in Collapse, his magisterial work on why some societies have fallen apart, progress is not guaranteed, especially if a society squanders its resource base — and there is ample evidence of this happening now on a global scale.

And if faith flourishes in a situation of constraint rather than plenty, the future of faith might be one of revival.

All this speculation is very interesting, but the Christian’s job is to bear witness, “in season and out of season”.

In Europe it is decidedly “out of season”, so we pray for those who, inspired by Pope Benedict XVI, work for the re-evangelisation of Europe.

Pope Francis seems to draw the crowds and has the admiration of many, but there is little evidence of a mass return to Church, even though in some places there is talk of a “Francis effect”.

Clearly it is going to be tough going for the Church in her traditional heartland and she will need all the prayers she can get.

And we also must not be complacent about belief in our own country, the most westernised country in Africa.