The demise of "Christendom" affects both the Church's
theological dialogue and missional strategy. Michael Frost and
Alan Hirsch give the historical explanation for what it is:
Christendom is the name given to the sacral culture that has
dominated European society from around the eleventh century
until the end of the twentieth. Its sources go to a time when
Constantine came to the throne of the Roman Empire and granted
Christians complete freedom of worship and even favored
Christianity, thereby undermining all other religions in the
empire. . . Taken as a sociopolitical reality, Christendom has
been in decline for the last 250 years, so much so that
contemporary Western culture has bee…