Does Christianity have anything relevant to offer modern society?

Question

Please think before you answer.

If you're going to give a Sunday-School answer like "Everyone needs salvation", please explain to me how convincing someone they're sinful and then offering them salvation is relevant. To me that's like a snake-oil salesman convincing someone they're sick and then selling them the cure.

Answer 1

Love. Don't we all need to feel loved? How many kinds of dysfunctional isms are blamed on a person not feeling loved. Do you know anyone who wouldn't like to be loved unconditionally?? Just as they are, just as I am?

Hope. Many evil things are done by people with no hope, no reason to treat others kindly, to do the right thing. Hope of a life eternal, filled with purpose here on earth. Living in response to the gift of a loving God.

It's God's love, shown by the gift of His Son, that is relevant to modern society. Faith in Jesus has changed many hopeless lives into lives of hope, changed many hearts of stone into generous, caring hearts. Not relevant? Hardly.

Answer 2

Your question pretty well shows the problem of Christians in modernity.

To the extent that modernity is based on Enlightenment notions of secularity, modern society excludes any relevance for Christianity from the ground up. Kant's celebrated definition of Enlightenment as freedom from any sort of external compulsion seeks a rationality which has no need to appeal to external warrants for belief, including religious scriptures and doctrines.

But if what is relevant to society is decided to be what is rational to the exclusion of faith, then Christianity can only show its relevance to modern society if it makes itself into something that everyone could discover by just using their own reason, anyways.

Your example of the snake-oil salesman is a really good one. The assumptions of modern society can make no sense of Christian claims of sinfulness and salvation. The closest modern category Christianity fits into is chicanery. Unless, of course, Christians change so that they are saying nothing that moderns don't already know anyways.

Christians are in a tough spot. We're trying to sell a narrative which no one has the currency to buy anymore. But if we change our product to fit the market, we find that everyone has it already.

Example: some people above mentioned the need for love and happiness. Well, one can know those needs perfectly well as a non-Christian modern - and one could find plenty of modern entertainments and friends to keep you loved and happy without religion.

In other words, I basically cannot answer your question without betraying the Christianity I'd be trying to defend. The only way to see the relevance of Christianity is to see Christianity from the inside: the only way to see the relevance of Christianity is to be a Christian.

Answer 3

Do you not believe we are sinful? Have you ever cursed? Lied? Stolen? Of course we all have. None of us are perfect. All of those sins separate us from God's love. That means we cannot enter in His presence because He is a perfect and Holy God. Knowing this grieves God's heart, so He sacrificed His Son to die so that there can be a bridge between perfection and sin. All we have to do is except this gift.

I don't see how we are selling something. This is not a sales pitch. It's true life and death is inevitable for everyone of us. Yes, this is relevant to today's society. Christ died for all of us, whether we live now or lived thousands of years ago. He never changes, and that includes His love for us.

Answer 4

I think all religious/spiritual traditions have something to offer. The truth is that each of us brings something different to the table when it comes to religion/spirituality. To say that Christianity or any other long-lived religion does not have modern applications is akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Answer 5

Christianity has nothing to offer modern society that other religions don't also offer -- and many other religions are often quite better at offering such, since they typically aren't characterised as defining themselves as ultimately "better" than any other religion out there.

Many anthropologists believe that societies were much better off, socially speaking, before enforced mass Christianisation. Pre-Christian societies were more likely to go to war over territory than over mythology. In fact, Christianity and Islam are the only religions in history to wage war over mythology (despite the fact that many Christians and Muslims disagree with such action).

Answer 6

Yes. It can offer a simple way of living a useful, happy, and good life. However, you must understand that the same set of principles can be found in Buddhism, Muslim, Hindi,Judaism and any other Religion known to man. Salvation is irrelevant- Only Life is important. All of these set down the Same Basic Principles. It, In My Opinion, makes absolutely no difference what you call it.... it is still a simple set of guidelines to live a good Life.

Answer 7

Only if modern society is willing to except what Christianity has to offer. You apparently are not as evident by your comment after your question. But there are still some people in modern society that are willing to except the truth of salvation. And no it is not the same. We are not trying to trick or lie to people. We tell them the way to salvation, if they want it then they can except it, if not then it is their choice.

Answer 8

This will sound lame, but it works. Read a couple chapters out of the New Testament. And see for yourself if the lessons from 2000 years ago are relevant today.

Answer 9

It offers false promises and fabricated claims. And sometimes a false sense of security. But little else.
Obviously a lot of people get something out of it or there wouldn't be so many believers. But on balance, it seems obvious to me that religion is overall a detrimental influence on society.

Answer 10

The only thing Christianity has to offer modern society is regression to primitive society.