I'm going to disappoint you with my conciliatory nature;-) Nevertheless, my (very) religious upbringing (nonconformist low-church Protestantism) left me with a sense that what authority there was in the church did not lie with people, but with texts. An anomaly, perhaps.
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Replying to @IDJennings
1. Protestantism is decadent Christianity. It was founded on the principle of a revolt against authority, namely the Vatican. Paradoxically, its decadence springs from a desire to perfect Christianity, which was why it emerged in the most perfectly Christian lands: Germany.
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Replying to @tomxhart @IDJennings
2. This was Nietzsche’s argument, re: Germany. Protestantism today is dying everywhere, and few Protestant “Christians” believe in a metaphysical God or the biblical teachings. Protestantism is leftist in the sense that it is organisational entropy for Christianity.
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Replying to @tomxhart
I assume you don't regard Pentecostalism as Protestant, then? And possibly Evangelicalism also doesn't count as Protestant for you either? Both are growing fast and, as far as I can see, share plenty of characteristics with Protestantism.
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Replying to @IDJennings
1. I am instinctively suspicious of statistics that talk of “fast growing” or “fastest growing” religions. Over the years, I have seen Mormonism, Islam, Scientology, Evangelical Christianity, and 7thd-day Adventism fill the slot of “fastest growing” religion.
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Replying to @tomxhart @IDJennings
2. I suspect that this is actually very hard to measure, and that statistics regarding the growth of religions are manipulated for all sorts of political and organisational reasons (and not just by faiths trying to be “the most popular”, more subtle politics is at play).
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Replying to @tomxhart
Fair enough. But I offered no statistics and do not rely on them in forming my opinion.
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Replying to @IDJennings
1. Yes, true. But the assertion of being “fast growing” or “fastest growing” usually derives from research based on statistics making that claim. I would say, for example, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the UK—based on personal observation. But that is rarely reported.
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Replying to @tomxhart @IDJennings
2. So, regarding Pentecostalism and Evagelicalism, I would go from experience. I meet many Muslims and see many Muslim children in primary schools. I meet few Pentecostals or Evangelicals (and see mosques being built, but not Evangelical/Pentecostal centres).
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Replying to @tomxhart
I don't doubt that your observations are true of the UK. I do not spend much time there. My hunch is, though, that if there is *any* growth in Christianity in the UK, it will be found in Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism.
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The state, being technocratic liberal, takes every opportunity to frustrate these groups, because they are the rival religious sects most close to it. Growth is unlikely.
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Replying to @tomxhart
Unlikely in the UK, as it is currently ethnically constituted, yes.
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