By Peter
In one of our readings about the nature and calling of the Church by Lesslie Newbigin, he writes that “the denomination is precisely that visible form which the Church takes when a secularized society privatizes religion”. While I understand why differences exist between various denominations, I believe that the separation this has caused is not what the Church of the Kingdom was intended to look like. This idea of church privatization is an idea that has made me think a lot more about the impact of capitalism on the Western Church.
In a capitalist market, consumer behavior is said to be directed by an ‘invisible hand’ which is the rise and fall of prices that guides our actions in the market. The law of demand states that the quantity demanded rises as the price falls and vice-versa. Competition is created as different producers try to make their own product more attractive than their competitors.
The western church seems to be operating under these same principles based on individualism and freedom of choice. With all the different denominations that ex
is t today, each one seems to correspond, as Newbigin would say, to the variety of brands available on the shelves of the supermarket. Everyone is free to make their own choice based on what seems most attractive. The result is that church ‘growth’ in our country today is primarily just Christians moving between churches rather than new believers joining the Church. This means that there is little in terms of actual growth as a percentage of the population. On the other hand, the Church is growing faster than ever in other places of the world, in particular Asia and Latin America.
I have not done a lot of research yet on this topic but am very interested in the connection that exists between the Church and capitalism and how capitalistic values are shaping the way the Christian faith is ‘marketed’ in our culture. How does the exponential growth of the Church in Asia and Latin America correlate to the existing social and economic structures and the culture these have created?
