Insights into Evangelism in a Post-Christian Era from the Spiritual Stories of Apatheist Members of an Online Community
Abstract
In a Post-Christian era, increasing numbers of people are apathetic to the existence of deity. This project explores the spiritual stories of apatheistic members of an internet community. From their stories, I offer an understanding of evangelism based in community. The church, gathered by the Holy Spirit, is a new household of intentional love and welcome for all whom God gathers to it. Evangelism is not only a practice of the church, but the process by which the Holy Spirit offers an invitation into the loving reign of God as proclaimed by the pilgrim-priests of the gathered church of Christ.
0. Introduction
Summary
Adapted from my doctoral project, I offer an introduction and summary of the other sections on my website as I explore what it looks like to be the church in a Post-Christian era.
1. Post-Christianity
Summary
As the Western world enters a Post-Christian era, I describe the growing number of “nothing in particulars” with regard to religious affiliation and describe another category of belief: apatheism.
2. Transcendences
Summary
In a Post-Christian world, encounters with transcendence usually do not involve the Christian God. Instead, the optionality of belief leads people to other transcendences.
3. The Reign of God
Summary
Through Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; God inaugurates God’s new creation—a perfect world without the corruptions of sin and death—called the “reign of God.”
4. The Gathered Church
Summary
To bear witness to God’s reign in the world, the Holy Spirit gathers a church—a people who proclaim the resurrected Jesus and live God’s promised future in their present.
5. Households of Witness
Summary
Having experienced a taste of God’s promised future, the reign of God, the gathered church proclaims this future in the present, as a community of love and welcome.
6. At the Edges
Summary
- The witness-bearing church finds itself at the borders between groups: new creation and present reality, insider and outside, God and humanity. They are the pilgrim-priests who represent God to humanity and humans to God.
7. Tensions
Summary
I conclude with an exploration of the tensions inherent in bearing witness to God’s reign, emphasizing the importance of trusting the Holy Spirit to do the work She promised to do.