The thesis of this book is that the Christian movement can indeed have a significant future - one that will be faithful to the original vision of the movement and of immense service to our beleaguered world. But to have that future, Christians will have to stop trying to have the kind of future that sixteen centuries of official Christianity in the Western world has conditioned them to covet. Douglas John Hall examines the decline and fall of Christendom and looks at ecclesiastical responses to the end of Christendom. He proposes that the churches make their disestablishment work for good and describes how the Christian movement might serve dominant societies, classes, and institutions in a post-Christian era. Douglas John Hall is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology in the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Lighten Our Darkness (1976, 2001); Why Christian? (1998); God and Human Suffering (1986); The Steward (1990; Wipf & Stock, 2004); and The Messenger (Cascade Books, 2011). He has lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan, and is the recipient of many honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Union Theological Seminary, the Joseph Sittler Award for Leadership in Theology, and the Order of Canada.