Christianity as a religion of political correctness in modern Europe: illusion and real prospects

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleХристианство как религия политкорректности в современной Европе: иллюзия и реальные перспективы
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Saprykin, Dmitry
5. lemma category Ecumenism and dialogue > Dialogue between churches - Ecumenism and dialogue > Dialogue between religions
6. Publication date 2008
7. lemma work Шохин Владимир [Author]. Christianity as a religion of political correctness in modern Europe: illusion and real prospects
8. lemma manifestations Альфа и Омега
9. Keywords secularization
10. Citations
    1. http://aliom.orthodoxy.ru/arch/053/shoh53.htm
11. Lemma body

    1. A polemic article by Doctor of Philosophy, the head of the philosophy of religion section of the Philosophy Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, V.K. Shokhin is dedicated to the future of Christianity in Western Europe. The object of controversy here is one common view that, despite the obvious crisis of the Christianity social authority in Europe, it will remain in the world civilization center on the grounds that Europe has always been Christian and therefore it cannot cease to be Christian by definition.

       The author gives many examples of how among the three monotheistic religions that are constantly declared as equal, unifying Europe manages to position Christianity as unequivocally "less equal," while the other two are "much more equal". The greatest claims, the author believes, are caused by Christians themselves who voluntarily agree to their "inequality".

       For a genuine interreligious dialogue, the equality of its participants is necessary, so the future of this dialogue depends on the extent to which the Christian side will take care of restoring its "dialogic fullness." Its loss, as Shokhin believes, was the result of three great defeats in the history of Christianity, each of which facilitated each subsequent and is retained in it as a necessary component. The first defeat was the division of the Christian East and West with a further division of the West; the second is the successful secularization of the divided Christian world, in which the existence of Christian states has gradually ceased. The third is the decisive orientation of the divided Christian faiths to a comprehensive adaptation to secular values and ideologies, rather than the Christianization of a secularized society.

       Therefore, it is precisely the trend toward "modernizing", and actually the secularization of Christianity itself, which culminates in the political correctness standards practically eliminating the normative nature of confession, became the main reason for the fact that Christianity is more and more content with its role of cultural-historical, if not museum-archeological, Tradition, ceasing to be a living faith.

       Therefore, only a movement in a sharply opposite direction, to the primordial beginnings of that Kingdom, which, according to the words of the Savior Himself, not of this world (John 18:36), could restore to Christianity the main thing - lost internal positions. It would be appropriate, in the author's opinion, to open an inter-confessional dialogue - first of all, the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue - on developing common actions in the direction of upholding Christian rights, coordinating the impact on international legal organizations with the aim of introducing an article on Christianophobia into legal pan-European documents.

       To those who believe that Europe, without special efforts, simply can not cease to be Christian on the grounds that for many centuries it was such, the author reminds that "in Russia before 1917 no one, except for single seers, could suppose that what then had happened could happen, and even when it happened, very few thought it could "linger" seriously. God does not give anyone mandates for eternity, and the human side also needs some effort to prolong the relationship with Him. "