Revival in ... France?

Mark Twain in 1883 projected the future of the Mississippi River, which has a way of shortening itself as water finds a way to go straight from one point to another instead of taking a big loop.

“In the space of 176 years the lower Mississippi has shortened itself 242 miles,” Twain wrote, “therefore any calm person who is not blind or idiotic can see … that in 742 years the Mississippi will be only a-mile-and-three-quarters long.”

I’ve seen similar projections about the future of Christianity—but look at what’s happening in China and Africa, in churches like New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian pastored by Tim Keller, and even in … France.

Pascal Emmanuel Gobry in The Week writes about Catholic revival in France:

“[T]he majority of my college and grad school friends who were Christmas-and-Easter-Catholics when we met now report going to Church every Sunday and praying regularly. On social media, they used to post about parties; now they’re equally likely to post prayers for persecuted Middle East Christians or calls to help the homeless over the holidays.”

I’m glad to hear that, but I’d like more information. Charisma in 2000 ran a column titled “Revival in France” and reported on an evangelistic crusade.

LifeSiteNews.com headlined an article in 2006, “Major Signs of Religious Revival Seen in France and Quebec.” Other magazines have made similar projections, but it doesn’t appear that much changed. France in many ways has never recovered from its murderous persecution of Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, followed by its 18th and 19th century revolutions, as the French pushed for hope and change apart from God.

One change is clear: The theological liberalism that dominated Catholicism and Protestantism for a generation or two is mostly dead. Gobry calls his pastor “unapologetically orthodox. He is tactful, but unafraid to talk about controversial topics.” Furthermore, “The massive rallies in France, underwritten by the Catholic Church, against the recent same-sex marriage bill stunned the world: Isn’t France the poster child for sexually-easygoing secularism? Perhaps more than a million people took to the streets, and disproportionately young ones, too.”

Gobry concludes that “a century of militant secularism” drove Christian belief underground but didn’t kill it: “Perhaps by privatizing faith, the secularists unwittingly strengthened it.” That’s often a hope rather than reality, but in China Christianity is clearly providing an alternative to the government’s attempt to mandate materialism, and maybe the outcome will be similar in France.