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John Paul the II and the New Christendom
By Dwight Longenecker
Pope John Paul II was often portrayed as a reactionary theocrat— a medieval monarch who wanted to turn back the clock morally and theologically. One commentator snidely remarked that John Paul II may have brought down the Kremlin, but he himself ended up ruling with Brezhnev-ian power from his own little walled city in Rome.
This comment only makes sense from the narrow and self centred perspective of the Euro-American intelligentsia. In fact, John Paul II was the first truly global pope, and his constant missionary journeys around the world were reflections of his thoroughly modern, global perspective.
In his book, The Next Christendom, The Coming of Global Christianity Philip Jenkins points out that in the second half of the twentieth century a seismic revolution has taken place in humanity’s self understanding. This revolution is missed by most of the intelligentsia because so few of them have an interest in religious affairs.
The shift that Jenkins highlights is the transition of Christianity’s centre from Europe and the United States to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Jenkins quotes the World Christian Encyclopaedia to point out that even now European and American Christians are outnumbered by their brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Looking forward to the year 2050, Jenkins predicts the continued phenomenal growth of Christianity. By the most Christians will be African. Latin America will be second and Europe will come third. Asia will be next and North America a distant fifth. Put together, Southern and Eastern Christians will hugely outnumber an ageing and dwindling Euro-American Christianity.
The numerical shift is vitally important, but the characteristics of this new Christendom are even more fascinating. What are these new Christians like? Put simply, Christians from the South and East are ‘neo-orthodox.’ On the one hand their religion is the supernaturalist, ‘0ld time religion’—both morally and doctrinally. On the other hand, it is anything but staid or old fashioned. Instead the Africans, Asians and Latin Americans express their faith in their own vibrant cultural vocabulary, in an up to date and relevant style. Economically, this Christian population is poor, young and hungry. This means their politics are practical not ideological. They simply want chances in the world and will espouse those politics that help them get ahead.
The Catholics and the Pentecostals are the two groups at the forefront of this tsunami-like movement within Christianity. The mainstream liberal Protestant churches have been largely ignorant and uncaring of the huge changes, and, like the Anglican, have been surprised to find Asian and African Christians flexing their muscles. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has been involved in these change. Indeed, they are the key for understanding the pontificate of John Paul II.
Ian Ker, the biographer of John Henry Newman observed that Church councils, while seeming to be reactionary, are more often prophetic. They prepare the church formally for what is about to happen informally at the grass roots level. Just as the Council of Trent paved the way for the Counter Reformation in the Catholic Church, so the Second Vatican Council paved the way for the present religious revolution. John Paul II was not only one of the architects of that council, he is also a product of it.
About the same time as the council Africa’s first Cardinal was appointed. Since then the numbers of cardinals from the Third World has continued to rise. Now 40% of the cardinals eligible to vote for John Paul II’s successor will be from Third World Countries. This shows that the Catholic Church has been well aware of the shift of power away from old Europe, and has seen fit to ensure that this majority shift is represented in the corridors of power. Many believe John Paul II’s election in 1978 was the stepping stone for a pope from the developing world.
With this global perspective in mind the grumbles of liberal Euro-American pressure groups who want the church to change its views on women priests, homosexuality and celibacy seem like the bleating of a few lost sheep. For the vast majority of Catholics such concerns do not even register on the radar, and if they did their views would be against the innovators.
Those Catholics who have a narrow secular agenda liked to paint John Paul II as an out of touch reactionary. Nothing could be further from the truth. John Paul II well understood the Euro American intelligentsia, but he also understood that, in the global view, theirs was a very small and idiosyncratic voice.
John Paul II’s pontificate is best understood by realising that from the beginning, (along with the resurrection of the Church in Eastern Europe) his eye was toward the youthful, burgeoning church of the Third World. When John Paul II upheld conservative moral values and traditional Catholic beliefs he was simply affirming the faith of the majority of Catholics worldwide. All of his encyclicals, his teaching and his pastoral letters can be seen as laying a foundation for the blossoming of this great new Christendom of the twenty-first century—a Christendom, as Kenyan scholar John Mbiti says, is based not in Rome, Athens, Canterbury or New York, but in Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Seoul and Manila.
Ironically, John Paul II’s global vision makes him the most democratic of popes. He who was portrayed as a backward looking autocrat, was in fact a forward looking prophet who had his ear tuned to the Holy Spirit while he kept his finger on the pulse of the people.
Dwight Longenecker is a freelance writer and journalist. Contact him at www.dwightlongenecker.com
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