ABSTRACT
In the case of Western Christianity, this chapter takes account of the fact that, running in parallel with the decline in religious organisations, there are signs that 'spirituality', as distinct from 'religion', is becoming ever more significant to a generation for whom the world looks increasingly dangerous and unpredictable. More recently, Alan Jamieson's study of people who leave the church has provided empirical confirmation of what for the author was originally no more than an informed guess. One of the most noticeable developments in church life over the past fifty years has been the emergence of the 'mega-church'–still largely an American phenomenon, though one that is increasingly admired, if not copied, by churches in Britain. The ideology of the British empire owed a good deal to the memory of Christendom, which in turn had been modelled on the Roman empire and from which it took its philosophical and technological inspiration.
