ABSTRACT
This essay approaches the subject of this volume from a new philosophical perspective. Abel suggests that we should reconsider our understanding of the nature of religion as something in a life-cycle of birth, growth and decline. The contemporary decline is simply an expression of this phenomenon of life. Christians must learn to embrace this phase of life. He suggests methods and ways whereby Christians and churches can learn to manage the decline. Abel encourages us to abide in faith and to learn to decline “tranquilly.” Declining “tranquilly” lets us remember the principle of jubilee: Everything stops so it can start anew again.
