Church historian sees Catholic schism ahead

Influential church historian Diarmaid MacCulloch said he believes that Christianity faces a bright future but predicts that the Roman Catholic Church will undergo a major schism over its moral and social teaching.

“Christianity, the world’s largest religion, is rapidly expanding—by all indications, its future is very bright,” said MacCulloch, 60, professor of church history at Oxford University and an Anglican deacon.

MacCulloch’s observations are spelled out in his book to be published in the spring by Penguin UK. He told the Century that the book’s provisional title is Listening, Praying, Forgetting: A History of Christian Silence.