I first read The Gravedigger File by Os Guinness when it came out in the mid 1980s. The book is not unlike C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and explores the decline of the Church’s influence in the West. What really struck me were the cartoons which introduced each chapter; they seemed to encapsulate the issues addressed by Guinness and the one above is my favourite. It came to mind as I read +Nick Baines’ recent blog Borrowing from the Neighbours in which he comments on syncretism and the church. Nick observes the way in which some Christians and churches are very good at identifying the syncretistic compromises of others, while being completely ignorant of their own syncretistic tendencies.
In the midst of the upheaval created by the recent economic tsunami, the collapse of politics and the unremitting cynicism of the media, it does seem important for us as Christians to take time to reflect on the influences which shape our relationship with society and the responses we make to the issues of the day.
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