This is a very interesting article about the efforts of the Evangelical (that is, Lutheran) Church in Germany to reestablish itself in the east, after years of suppression under Communism. One idea being floated is to turn Wittenberg into a kind of “Protestant Rome” and to amp up the public face of Protestantism with more pomp, ritual, and ceremony. Another pastor profiled in the article has a more low-key approach, one that involves simply “being present” with people during the various occasions in their lives, offering advice and counsel, and so on.

Many Christian thinkers have assumed that people naturally feel a pressing thirst for transcendence, a “God-shaped hole,” to use J.P. Sartre’s expression. Sartre’s view was that we should heroically suppress this need and bravely face up to the meaninglessness of the universe. But what if, after decades of secularism, people no longer feel that thirst? What if it’s not as ineradicable as we’ve thought? There are some hints in this article that the church in Germany is facing this very situation: many people simply have no interest whatsoever in religion (even the woman who works at the “Luther House” in Wittenburg!). How do you minister to people like that?