The end of Christendom, where the Christian story was known and the church was central, invites Christians in western culture to embrace marginality and discover fresh ways of being church and engaging in mission. While the transition from modernity to postmodernity has received a huge amount of attention, the shift from Christendom to post-Christendom has not yet been fully explored. This book is an introduction; a journey into the past, an interpretation of the present and an invitation to ask what following Jesus might mean in the strange new world of post-Christendom. Drawing on insights from the early Christians, dissident movements and the world church, this book challenges conventional ways of thinking. For those who dare to imagine new ways of following Jesus on the margins, it invites a realistic and hopeful response to challenges and opportunities awaiting us in the 21st century.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Post-Christendom arms us with the necessary weapons to combat and challenge the increasing secularization, and offers a rare glimpse of hope in this strange new world."DAVID COFFEYModerator of the Free Churches and General Secretary of the Baptist Union
About the Author
Stuart Murray is chair of the UK Anabaptist Network and the editor of Anabaptism Today. He also oversees Urban Expression, a pioneering urban churchplanting agency.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The central idea of this book is that whether people lament or celebrate it the last vestiges of christendom are disappearing and Christians in the UK are going to have to get used to living `on the margins' of society.
Murray's book is split into two main sections. The first a broad survey of the history of the Christendom mindset and its implications on Church life and the second a tentative proposal of how the Church must change to adapt to this new situation.
Overall I found this book an excellent introduction to the whole subject of Christianity and Christendom and how antithetical it is to the Christian gospel. The book is wide ranging and as a result does lack somewhat for detail however this is unavoidable given its breadth. This is however counterbalanced by good referencing and a key bibliography that enables those wishing to pursue areas further to do so (I already have a couple of key books on order).
On the negative side I did find it a little strange given its concetration of British Post-Christendom that there was so little analysis of the rise of Christendom within England/Britain (the English reformation under Henry VIII, for example, is (externally) a prime example of a top-down conversion).
Overall though this is recommended.
Murray's book is split into two main sections. The first a broad survey of the history of the Christendom mindset and its implications on Church life and the second a tentative proposal of how the Church must change to adapt to this new situation.
Overall I found this book an excellent introduction to the whole subject of Christianity and Christendom and how antithetical it is to the Christian gospel. The book is wide ranging and as a result does lack somewhat for detail however this is unavoidable given its breadth. This is however counterbalanced by good referencing and a key bibliography that enables those wishing to pursue areas further to do so (I already have a couple of key books on order).
On the negative side I did find it a little strange given its concetration of British Post-Christendom that there was so little analysis of the rise of Christendom within England/Britain (the English reformation under Henry VIII, for example, is (externally) a prime example of a top-down conversion).
Overall though this is recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Alan Hirsch
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. And I am genuinely thankful to Stuart for doing it. It is scholarly in the classically British way--understated, gentle, articulate, and thoroughly devasating to views that have held that Christendom was the acme of a so-called Christian civilization. If you are trying to get to grips with what the church must be and become. This is a must read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Stuart Murray Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004)
Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw
Murray, an Anabaptist and church planting executive in the UK, offers a thorough historical overview of Christendom's rise and fall. The modern-postmodern transition has received a lot of attention, but Murray focuses on the just as significant end of Christendom - where the Christian story was known and the church was central - and the implications for mission and discipleship now from the margins. New outside-the-box models are imperative. Murray draws on early Christianity, dissident movements and the global church to suggest fresh, simple, de-clericalised, risky and re-imagined directions for church and mission.
Originally appeared in Darren Cronshaw, `The Emerging Church: Introductory Reading Guide', Zadok Papers, S143 (Summer 2005).
Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw
Murray, an Anabaptist and church planting executive in the UK, offers a thorough historical overview of Christendom's rise and fall. The modern-postmodern transition has received a lot of attention, but Murray focuses on the just as significant end of Christendom - where the Christian story was known and the church was central - and the implications for mission and discipleship now from the margins. New outside-the-box models are imperative. Murray draws on early Christianity, dissident movements and the global church to suggest fresh, simple, de-clericalised, risky and re-imagined directions for church and mission.
Originally appeared in Darren Cronshaw, `The Emerging Church: Introductory Reading Guide', Zadok Papers, S143 (Summer 2005).
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