After almost 2000 years, Christianity finally succeeded, and Christendom began fading away.

From Why political success leads to failure by Scott Sumner.  

It seems to me that for its first 1800 years, Christendom mostly ignored the teachings of Jesus. Europe had a basically aristocratic culture, where the elite were especially respected if they engaged in warfare, and the poor were treated like dirt. That doesn’t seem very Christian!

In the 19th century, the West began to have a greater empathy for those at the bottom. Slavery was abolished. Democracy began to spread. Socialist ideas like income redistribution were adopted. Remember “Turn the other cheek”? In 1804, Hamilton was killed in a duel. By the late 1800s, dueling had been banned. Gradually over time, warfare became viewed less favorably.

In an earlier post, I discussed the prose of Herman Melville. In several novels, he made passionate arguments that society wasn’t truly Christian, as it had not truly absorbed the teachings of Jesus (which he viewed as profoundly important.) In White-Jacket, Melville made a strong argument against corporal punishment on US Navy ships. In Pierre, he portrays a character that sacrifices so much to help a poor woman that he is treated as if he is insane and is expelled from polite society.

Today, Melville has won his battles. Corporal punishment has been banned. Pierre would no longer be kicked out of polite society for his extraordinary act of generosity. We have finally become a Christian culture. (Judeo-Christian is perhaps more accurate.)

But Christianity in an institutional sense seems to be declining in the West. It’s as if the public is saying “We thank the Church for preserving the teachings of Jesus for 1800 years, but we don’t need you any longer. We have made these ideas a part of our secular philosophy, our social science, our politics, our culture. You’ve done your job, now please go away.”

Of course people like G.K. Chesterton and Ross Douthat would say that this won’t work, and perhaps they are right. I’m totally unqualified to predict the future course of society (even in a world where AI was not about to shake things up.) I’m just reporting what I’ve seen happen so far. After almost 2000 years, Christianity finally succeeded, and Christendom began fading away.