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The Memory of Faith

 It is common to think of the UK as "post-Christendom", or even post-Christian.

Census and surveys paint a picture of church decline. Faithfully following Jesus, yet alone seeing those from outside the church come to faith can be tough.

Daniel Strange describes it this way:

"The good news of Jesus is deeply implausible in our culture at the moment...the cultural air they have breathed all their lives has shaped them to assume Christianity is irrelevant, untrue and intolerant" ("Plugged In", p32).

Yet the memory of faith lingers, in music, in culture, and beyond in ways that keep popping up. I was recently at a secular event where the crowd participation moment was to get those gathered to join in singing "Come and go with me to my Father's house". It was quite something to hear the room belting out the words of there being joy in the Father's house forever! Did anyone even notice the good news they were singing?

This weekend was Glastonbury Festival. I caught a few moment of Candy Staton's set, as she led the crowd in declaring "Hallelujah anyway!", before addressing a festival goer who had lost her mother and was at the festival to scatter ashes. "Praise him 'till the situation turns around...".

Then there is the Ed Sheeran documentary on Disney+, essentially charting his grief journey after losing a friend. At a concert where he is overcome by the emotion of it all, he spontaneously closes his set singing "Amazing Grace".

Post-Christian is not pre-Christian. The memory and legacy of faith lingers.

From "Assembly Bangers" (look it up if you don't know!) to Stormzy, somehow in music and culture there is a connection with the God who is there, even if he is an unknown God (see Acts 17).

How can we connect with this residue of belief? Is this an opportunity for us as followers of Jesus?

As Tom Holland reminds us: 

"The West, increasingly empty though the pews may be remains firmly moored to its Christian past" ("Dominion", pxxv)


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