The Future of Christianity

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Editors:

• John Stenhouse
• Brett Knowles
• assisted by Antony Wood

This book examines New Zealand’s culture and Christianity in relation to secularisation.

This book, written by a group of New Zealand scholars, theologians, historians, and lawyers, examines the question of New Zealand’s Western culture and Christianity. The contributors explore recent debates over secularisation, exploring its merits and explanatory power, while also showing its limitations. Throughout the West diverse forms of religiosity and spirituality remain widespread, and, while changing form, show few signs of disappearing. The contributors insist that it is impossible to understand contemporary relations between the West and, for example, the Islamic world without understanding the religiosity on both sides of this complex and portentous divide. Several contributors raise questions about the extent to which Western political, intellectual and media élites really understand what ordinary Westerners, let alone Muslims, actually believe. The assumption still pervasive amongst secular Westerners that religion is dying out constitutes a species of wishful thinking that the twenty-first century world can no longer afford.

Contents

Introduction
John Stenhouse and Brett Knowles
Karakia
Muru Walters

Part I Historical Perspectives

1. Te Upoko o te Ika Karaitianatanga
   Muru Walters


2. Christianity and National Identity: The Role of the Churches in ‘the Construction of Nationhood’
   Allan K Davidson

Part II Sociological Perspectives

3. Is the Future of Western Christianity a Pentecostal One?
   A Conversation with Harvey Cox
   Brett Knowles


4. 'No Longer Believing’—or—’Believing Without Belonging
   Kevin Ward


5. Christian Allegiance is Declining, Yet Theological Education is Booming
   Bruce Knox


6. The Future of Christianity in New Zealand: What is Happening with the Children?
   Mary Petersen

Part III Political Perspectives

7. Endorsement, Neutrality or Suppression: What is the Best Government Policy for Christianity?
   Rex J Ahdar


8. Unmaking New Zealands State Secular Education System
   Rory Sweetman


9. Social Policy and the Churches in the 1990s and Beyond
   Peter Lineham


10. Coming Through the Backdoor? Secularisation in New Zealand and Maori Religiosity
    Eric Kolig

Part IV Theological Perspectives

11. The Future of Christian Thought in the South
    Neil Darragh


12. Beyond Ground Zero: Resourcing Faith in a Post-Christian Era
    Mike Riddell