Resurrecting Christianity

In "A Resurrected Christianity," Diana Butler Bass discusses the current crisis facing Christianity. Christians are dwindling and Atheism is on the rise, and Bass explains why. She thinks organized religion has become hypocritical and irrelevant to millions, and feels the Christian mindset must be altered in order to save Christianity. According to Bass, Christianity has centered around the following 3 questions in the past:


1) What do I believe? (What does my church say I should think about God?)
2) How should I behave? (What are the rules my church asks me to follow?
)3) Who am I? (What does it mean to be a faithful church member?)

Christianity has historically centered (to a certain extent) about following a specific doctrine and a specific set of rules. Bass feels if Christianity is to survive, it must become more centered on individual spirituality, and focus on a different set of questions:

1) How do I believe? (How do I understand faith that seems to conflict with science and pluralism?)
2) What should I do? (How do my actions make a difference in the world?)
3) Whose am I? (How do my relationships shape my self-understanding?)


Christianity must engage in the questions of belief, behavior, and belonging in order to bring people back to church. Bass encourages Christianity to move away from its rigid structure and make room for individual thinking, as opposed to the dictated thinking of the past. 


I think the picture I included above sums up the rising atheism throughout the world and also connects with Bass' ideas. Many people today don't feel compelled to participate in a religion which expects them simply to follow rules. I think religion is much more powerful if it encourages people to think about why and how they should act instead of telling them. Bass wants Christianity to stop telling people the answers, and instead guide them in figuring out questions of belief, behavior, and belonging. 


Article:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-butler-bass/a-resurrected-christianit_b_1410143.html