earthsedge

This weekend we had Friday off so we took advantage of it and spent the day in Geneva. Geneva is only about 25 minutes away by train, but that’s after a bus ride down the hill to Gland. I’ve been looking forward to this since we arrived in Switzerland; Geneva is one of the world’s influential cities and was a key place during the Protestant Reformation. We hardly did it justice in a day, but it was still fun. We strolled by the lake, walked through downtown, ate lunch in a park, went to the Museum of the Reformation, Reformation wall, and finally Maison Tavel. I was hoping to go to the Palace of the Nations, but maybe next time. Here’s some pictures from the day:

From a distance; Geneva fountain

Reformation wall

Swiss chocolate: window shopping

The flower clock

Ancient/modern city

swinging

I spent the rest of the weekend working on a major research paper that is due in June. The actual paper will be fairly narrow in what it covers, but broadly I’m studying postmodernity, Christianity, and mission in Western Europe. I’m really enjoying it, mainly because I’ve chosen to read some authors who are arguing that postmodernism is the best thing to happen to Christianity in a long time. I’m finding it’s a refreshing perspective, as theologically you end up with a far more relational understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. If I get a chance I’ll write more on some of the data I’ve found on Western Europe-it’s fascinating stuff.

On another note, Becka broke her toe this weekend! She doesn’t think it’s too bad of a break, and there’s not much that can be done but trying to stay off it. We’re thankful it wasn’t a leg!

A few days ago USA Today had an informative article describing the dramatic decline of  religious groups in America:

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

“More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, ‘I’m everything. I’m nothing. I believe in myself,’ ” says Barry Kosmin, survey co-author.

There’s no doubt about it: the religious landscape in America is going through some big changes. We will either go the way of Western Europe, or Christianity will look very different in 50 years…