Customer Reviews

Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (AfterChristendom)

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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.

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.

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).

Stuart Murray offers a penetrating and concise analysis of how Constantinian Christendom hijacked Christianity, and suggests ways for churches to move ahead while discarding the Christendom mindset.

I enjoyed this book so much that I gave it to a friend, then felt the need to read it again and so had to buy myself a second copy!