Christianity can be considered the central conflict in the First World War, and a supporting reason in the Second World War. The First World War was fought with religion at the forefront of the fight. The churches of most countries involved advocated for the fight for Christ, telling soldiers they were doing gods work. The first world war was a crusade for both secular and religious power. In the end though, the soldiers fighting did not even know what cause they were fighting for. World War Two was waged less with religion in mind and more with the concern to preserve national pride. When Germany invaded Poland a tangled web of alliances was engaged. Hitler’s quest for control over the European continent and the religiosity of its people meant that the Jewish population, long labeled Christ-killers by Christians, was to be persecuted. What followed was the most horrific event in human history. The post-war Europe was faced with trying to figure out why the wars were justified of God planned out history. The Holocaust was determined to “an expression of sin and human choice, and therefore not gods will” (electronic copy). Following this, France adopted a policy of laïcité, or “governmentally enforced secularization” (electronic copy). After WWII, Russia was given control over most of Eastern Europe, but the individual territories and countries had control over their churches. Countries such as Albania declared national atheism, whereas Poland was devoutly Catholic. While Russian government declared atheism before the Iron Curtain fell, after 1990 Russian government aligned itself closely with the church.

The secularization of modern Europe has contributed to the drop in recent church attendance. Between secularization and immigration, modern Europe looks very different than the Europe of even a century and a half ago. Only half of Europeans say they believe in God, “and secularization is deeper and more evenly dispersed across Protestant Europe than in either Catholic or Orthodox Europe”. In addition, Eastern Europe is generally less secular than Western Europe, “even though Eastern Europe experienced decades of forced secularism under communist rule, while Western Europe became secular with no coercion at all” (electronic copy). The number of immigrants to Europe, specifically Western Europe has increased greatly over the past few decades. Though there has always been a Muslim population in Eastern Europe, the Muslim presence in the western part of the continent is relatively new. In fact, “in France, the number of religiously practicing Muslims is now roughly equal to the number of Catholics attending Mass every week” (electronic copy). These immigrants practice their faith publicly, but in Europe the social and sometimes even legal rule is that there is to be a “nakedness” of the public sphere (electronic copy). European individuals have drifted away from church because of the progression of secularism in the region. However, because this has taken place so “unreflectively”, many Christian beliefs and attitudes are still practiced unconsciously, making anything different appear bad (electronic copy).
In addition to the Muslim presence in Europe, there is a large number of African and Asian immigrants in Western Europe, who have set up their own churches. These congregations draw sometimes thousands of people, revitalizing and changing how European Christianity looks. Baptism numbers are declining and there are less and less priests marrying couples. There are more children born to single mothers and even less babies being born in general. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI spoke out often against birth control and said the declining birthrates were due to a “dimming of hope” (electronic copy).

European Christians place great emphasis on truth. They want to prove Christianity as true. The apostle Paul preached to people not to be deceived by holly arguments, but declared that sound reasoning and good arguments were in line with Christian beliefs. Truth comes from the ground up, as according to Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas both philosophized. If you can experience it with your senses and have argument and proof, then it is in line with God as well. Aquinas believed the existence of “of God could be proven on the basis of evidence-based, logical thinking. By joining reason with revelation, mere belief could be turned into solid, demonstrable knowledge” (electronic copy). Christianity’s beliefs in the order of nature of the universe could be considered the foundation of modern science. Though there was a tense relationship between the two in the past, with scientists labeled as heretics and put to death, the proof of these discoveries forced the Church to recant its statements.

Post-modernism and the opinions that come with it have cast a cynical lens to Christianity. European Christians believed in their ability to rationalize God to the point where Eastern Orthodox believers considered their actions tantamount to idolatry. The focus was moved away from God as the Creator and onto the natural earth. “Pavel Florensky, an Orthodox theologian asked “how the fullness of God and God’s relationship to the world could possibly “be packed into a narrow coffin of logical definition?” (electronic copy). The only way to know God was through personal meditation. Focusing on God could illuminate what it meant to be human without sacrificing the truth of science and rationalism. For both postmodern Christians and Orthodox Christians, “true truth” is the truth of our own fallibility and of humanity’s need for divine aid. This belief teeters on the edge of commitment to Christian ideals in hand with modern objectivity while also posing the risk of “sliding back relativism that rejects the importance of science and rationality and declares that anyone can believe whatever he or she wants to believe regardless of evidence and reason” (electronic copy). Ultimately, the belief that truth is not made of opinions, but of proven facts, will continue to influence post-modern European Christendom. Though truth has existed alongside God before, the lack of faith in the Church and the lack of verity of God will most likely further distance Europe from Christianity, making way for a different Christian empire.