"Many are called but few are chosen. There are sayings of Christ which suggest that the Church he came to establish will always be a minority affair"
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The sting in Norman's line is how calmly it punctures a modern assumption: that success, legitimacy, and moral seriousness naturally scale. By reaching for "Many are called but few are chosen", he borrows a sentence that already carries a double edge. It sounds democratic at first (the invitation goes wide), then snaps shut (the outcome narrows). Norman uses that rhetorical trap to reframe Christianity not as a mass movement destined to dominate, but as a demanding discipline that can never fully dissolve into the crowd.
As a historian, he's also taking aim at a certain triumphalist story the Church has told about itself since Constantine: that numerical expansion, institutional heft, and cultural centrality are signs of divine favor. Norman reads the Gospels against that grain. If Christ repeatedly speaks of narrow gates, costly discipleship, and rejection by the world, then the Church's "minority" status isn't a failure of marketing or a temporary dip in public relations. It's almost a structural feature of the project.
The subtext is pointedly contemporary. In an era when churches worry about decline, Norman suggests that anxiety may betray a category mistake: confusing Christianity with a public utility rather than a chosen way of life. He's not romanticizing marginality so much as warning that power can domesticate a faith built around surrender, reversal, and scandal. A Church that expects to be a majority may end up preaching something easier than Christ.
As a historian, he's also taking aim at a certain triumphalist story the Church has told about itself since Constantine: that numerical expansion, institutional heft, and cultural centrality are signs of divine favor. Norman reads the Gospels against that grain. If Christ repeatedly speaks of narrow gates, costly discipleship, and rejection by the world, then the Church's "minority" status isn't a failure of marketing or a temporary dip in public relations. It's almost a structural feature of the project.
The subtext is pointedly contemporary. In an era when churches worry about decline, Norman suggests that anxiety may betray a category mistake: confusing Christianity with a public utility rather than a chosen way of life. He's not romanticizing marginality so much as warning that power can domesticate a faith built around surrender, reversal, and scandal. A Church that expects to be a majority may end up preaching something easier than Christ.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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