Theological and Pastoral Reflections

Abstract

In their preface to Stoetzel’s Europe at the Crossroads (1983, p. viii) de Moor and Kerkhofs express the hope that the findings of the European Values Systems Study Group (EVSSG) will prove of use, among others, to Church leaders. The purpose of this contribution to an examination of the British findings is to offer some reflections of a theological and pastoral nature on how they may be received by the churches and individual Christians. The conclusions which will be advanced are:

• 1. that, as a matter of theological principle, the individual churches, and the Church as a whole, should be disposed to receive positively the results of the Values Study findings as ‘signs of the times’, in order to learn from them;

• 2. that the very disappointing results on religious values and on how religion is understood in Britain constitute a serious challenge to the Church, both to review its presentation of the Gospel and to accept the implications of diminishing membership for its own self-understanding; and

• 3. that, in the context of the consistently high support among individuals in Britain for moral values, Christians may learn that these are not essentially dependent upon religion and cannot be simplistically applied in a changing society; but that the Church’s moral role within British society is primarily to exemplify those human and Christian values which express both the Church’s own nature and man’s calling as one of koinonia, or active fellowship.