The Plight of Western Religion

In this book, Paul Gifford skilfully argues and densely packs with quotes and references Christianity’s long lament about how things have turned out for it in the present time. In the best tradition of argumentative doctrinal Christian scholarship, Gifford ploughs through other works of similar nature (illustrated by the fact that the book’s modest 112–page text is topped up with another 61 pages of notes and bibliographical references), searching in vain any thread to justify the current decline of Religion in the West. He found this style of writing useful as he was able to often shield his own views behind the opinions of others. Gifford taught at SOAS, the University of London, and spent many years in Africa where his wife held various UN positions. This opportunity he wisely used in, ‘studying religion in Africa at the beginning and latter Christianity exclusively’ (Preface).

He witnessed the transformation of Christianity in Africa, while mainline churches remained powerful, traditional independent churches have mushroomed. He also gained an insight into ‘the complexity of Christianity in Africa’ and ‘just as importantly … disclosed the pervasive enchanted religious imagination, or the worldview which seeks causality in spiritual forces’. One reason of such captivating vibrancy may well be that, unlike in Europe where ‘a cognitive shift has taken place’, Christianity in Africa remained true to the message of Jesus as long as it could. Even in the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, where the doctrine was adopted, Bishop Arius, the leader of the North African Christians, stood up against the combined might of Constantine and the Catholic church and reminded them that Jesus had always affirmed Divine Unity. The picture in the West was of course frustratingly different where he observed, first-hand, the decline of church attendance and the advancing tide of secularisation. While teaching an introductory course on Christianity at SOAS, he found how his otherwise ‘intelligent, articulate and extremely knowledgeable students’ are, ‘increasingly less-grounded in and drawn to any recognisably Christian heritage’.