The drastic paradigm shift that has taken place in the Western mind calls for what Os Guinness has proposed: the need for a third mission to the West. In this context, it is good to remind ourselves that, according to historians, the first mission started when Paul obeyed the Holy Spirit and went from Troas to Philippi in Macedonia (Acts 16:7-12) and finished around the end of the 4th Century A.D. with a vast conversion of the Roman Empire. The second mission took place from the V to the VIII century, with the conversion of the barbarian tribes. It was established around the year 800, with the proclamation of Charlemagne as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. It is the period in which Christianity, or rather Christendom, was established in the whole continent and, in later centuries, would be taken to the newly discovered American continent. However, this second mission lasted until about the end of the 18th century when the Enlightenment Movement began implementing the attitudes and practices that had begun to rise in the Renaissance times. This means that Modernity and Modernism, not only brought about the great scientific transformations and the Industrial Revolution but the even greater shift from believing in God to believing in reason and science as the ultimate answer for all problems of humanity. To our amazement this impetus, produced instead, in the 20th Century, the most horrific and devastating conflicts the world has ever seen, setting the stage for the rise of the secularized Western democracies that have grown to be prejudiced and even hostile towards Christianity.
This long process of secularization needs to be taken into account if we want to reach this most needed West yet a third time again. Yes, the West has now become one of the major mission fields, if not the major mission field, in the whole world. Many of the ancient pagan customs and habits that were part of the pre-Christian Roman world, together with the immoral evil deeds, have begun to be revitalized and restored to the European continent; and are reaching now the rest of the West at large.
Although the roots of this process of demolition and transformation can be traced back to the Renaissance times, the definite foundation for this new secular mentality was laid down and implemented during the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century. It was actually the time when philosophers like Kant, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and others spoke clearly and openly about the need to break with the long tradition of restriction of people´s minds by the church. They proclaimed the freedom of the intellect and the emancipation of reason as the only possible guide for the progress and advancement of mankind. Writers, musicians, and artists adopted this new way of thinking in the 19th century, people like Marx, Engels, Darwin, Wagner, and most of the artists of the avant-garde movement. These ideas then permeated Western society through the works of Nietzsche and the popular acceptance and acclamation of thinkers like J. P. Sartre, A. Camus, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, and others in the 20th. Century. This feat could not have been accomplished without the help of the arts and humanities, the mass media, and the powerful popularizing tool of television.
One may think these are just ideas for intellectual and philosophical discussions in small academic circles, but the fact is that these ideas have conditioned and shaped the course of Western history. As a philosophy professor commented once, “Philosophy cut the head of Louis XVI.” So much so that, to the surprise of many of the promoters and defenders of this new way of thinking, the Enlightenment movement, with its understanding of the liberation of reason and the empowering of human will, was at the root of all the social and political changes and transformations that produced the French Revolution in 1789, The First World War in 1914, The Communist Revolution in 1917 and the Second World War in 1939.
All those cataclysmic events finally set the stage for the advent of the irrational post-modern mentality by the middle of the 20th century. This is an even newer way of thinking that rises against reason, that very thing that had just been established as the leading force for the progress of humanity a few years earlier. And since these new thinkers cannot take God into account anymore because they had decided to dismantle any belief in Him by proclaiming, as Nietzsche did, “the death of God,”; what they proposed was skepticism, unbelief, and irrationality. In fact, the new post-modern thinkers not only believe that God is dead, but, like M. Foucault, they now proclaim that man himself is dead.
In conclusion, this new change of rationale did, after enthroning reason at the center of the European mentality and seeing the terrible and devastating consequences it produced, establish an even newer spirit of confusion, frustration, and irrationality in the European mindset. Nevertheless, our contemporary society tries to keep itself going in the midst of the debris of this collapsing world. And this is a situation that presents us as Christians with the titanic challenge of having to find new ways to connect with this new man, and offer the relevance of the gospel message in the midst of this overwhelming state of affairs.
As one contemplates this devastating situation, what becomes obvious is that there certainly is a need for a third mission to the West. But at the same time, one also realizes the great need for new means and ways of presenting the gospel message. Ways that will be able to engage the new issues being raised. The approaches to this problem may vary depending on the nature of each ministry or calling. However, when one approaches this situation from the point of view of the arts and humanities, it is not so difficult to see that they can be efficient tools for helping build bridges of communication and prepare the way for spiritual renewal and transformation.