Bishop Nazir-Ali: Only Christian faith will save Europe

by Gregory Tomlin
19 November, 2015

A retired Anglican bishop who now works on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide has a message for those who believe the answer to preventing more Islamic terrorism is promoting secular values:

Only Christianity can save Europe from the radical Islamists threatening it.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, who is originally from Pakistan, writes at The Catholic Herald that there are points of similarity between the secular states of Europe today and the fractured Roman Empire when it was sacked by barbarians in the fifth century.

Though many historians have blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome because it challenged its secularism (which the historians say was a unifying force), Nazir-Ali contends Rome was never secular – it had "religions of the family, tribe, city or empire." All of these systems had different ideals and values.

The invasions, however, occurred at a time where Christianity was beginning to unify the empire around shared ideals about life and faith and so, he writes, it was Christianity that saved western civilization in the Dark Ages following the destruction.

"We have the same decadent and dilettante popular culture, where anything goes and 'bread and circuses' keep the population quiescent with a never-ending round of sports, entertainment and games of chance," Nazir-Ali writes. These things naturally lead to a cynical view of faith.

The answer, however, is faith – the Christian faith, he writes... the rest