Proclamation and Proposal of Faith Today Issues and Challenges (original) (raw)

Counter-secularism: parsing the theological cure for our modern malady

Secularisations and their debates: perspectives on the return of religion in the contemporary West, 2014

The Radical Orthodoxy movement in theology argues that the modern world suffers from nihilism. Their research mines the theological origins of modernity for a cure to this ill. On their analysis, modern nihilism is a product of the secularization of theological concepts. Modern society is built on a theological conceptual structure, but God is absent. Integral for the proper functioning of such concepts, God needs to return. This chapter demonstrates that the cure for our modern malady proposed by the Radical Orthodoxy movement—return God to public life—is not the only one that follows from their premises. The conditions under which the movement’s arguments hold up, I contend, using movement member William T Cavanaugh’s arguments as a paradigm case, are the very conditions creating the possibility of two treatments: reinstate God and a belief in Him, or create a society based on non-theological ideas. A renewed belief in God may restore the theological concepts on which modernity is built to their proper functioning, thus curing the modern world of its nihilism; but according to Cavanaugh’s argument, so may removing the theological concepts on which modernity is built.

Views on the Contemporary Challenges to Christianity

2017

Resumo O cristianismo e desafiado por varias tendencias contemporâneas, quer internas quer externas, que este artigo estuda. Internamente, o cristianismo esta a ser desafiado a alterar os simbolos religiosos utilizados na devocao individual e no culto coletivo. Contudo, transformacoes culturais ou os problemas ecologicos (para utilizar dois exemplos), exercem uma enorme pressao no cirstianismo, incitando-o a repensar a sua posicao relativamente a desafios externos. Uma questao radical esta a ser colocada a Igrejas Cristas, lideres e membros, relacionada com o tipo de posicao moral que os cristaos devem adotar de forma a encarar os problemas e males do mundo, como a guerra, a populacao deslocada, a fome, as secas e a corrupcao. Este artigo analisa a pressao contemporânea interna e externa colocadas perante o cristianismo. Palavras-Chave: Cristianismo contemporâneo, desafios, etica, moral, consciencia. Abstract Christianity is challenged by various internal as well as external contemp...

A True Antagonist for a Broken World: Faith in a Secular Age

Catholic World Report, 2018

This essay, published at Catholic World Report on October 17, 2018, was edited from a lecture given to the Twin Cities Newman on Tap Group October 9, 2018. In the essay I recount my own journey from reception into the Catholic Church over 20 years ago--when I thought the Catholic Church's glass was half-full--to today when the Church in America and around the world is largely seen in crisis both from secular attacks from the outside and malfeasance and secular ways of thinking from within. From here I essay the kind of approach that John Henry Newman (1801-1890) took to crisis in the Church. For Newman confusion and distress is more the rule than the exception, and nearly every age--not least the age of Jerome, Augustine, and Leo--will appear bleak, with every age receiving a different crisis. Yet in the end Newman sees the miracle of the Church's rebirth amidst chaos as happening by the power of God. And he sees in the storm of secularism also the hand of God guiding the Church in the age after Christendom.

The Dawning of a Secular Age? The Fortunes of Christianity, Islam and 'New Age' Spirituality

The following is inspired by Charles Taylor's Secular Age (2007), the most significant study of religion and spirituality of recent decades. As Taylor is acutely aware, possibly for the first time in human history, certainly for the first time in the much briefer history of modernity, it could very well be the case that certain societies are entering-or have entered-a secular age. On first sight, the collapse of Christianity in a great deal of northern Europe does not bode well for the sociologist of religion. It seems that the advent of a secular condition means that there is little left to study. On second sight, the collapse provides a marvellous opportunity to test two venerable schools of thought. One school, developed by the secular wing of the Enlightenment, holds that the secular is self-sufficient. Once countries like Britain (focussed on in this essay) enter the secular condition, the age of the secular is set to run for the foreseeable future. It is self-sustaining. For people like Richard Dawkins (2006), it is perfectly possible, indeed highly desirable, to live a worthwhile, fulfilling life without Christianity, or any other form of religion or spirituality. The second school of thought holds that the secular condition is insufficient. There is something about the human condition which means that the secular, alone, is not enough. In Britain, the collapse of Christianity means that the secular holds greater sway. There are ever more people to have experiences, apprehensions, comprehensions, or outlooks that transgress the secular condition itself. In measure, the very imperfection of the secular condition generates reaction. To a degree, the secular is self-defeating. Secularization: From Christianity to Secularity An increasing number of sociologists of religion are directing their attention to whether a secular age has dawned, or whether some kind of post-secular condition is emerging. In northern Europe, secularization has been in evidence for a considerable time. In 1914, Durkheim observed, 'The old ideals and the divine figures that embodied them are in the process of dying' (Christiano 2007: 50). In 1917, Simmel noted, 'In our present context the essential fact is the existence of large social groups who, in pursuit of their religious needs, are turning away from Christianity', and referred to 'the widespread rejection of any fixed from of religious life' (: 258-9). In 1904, Max Weber (1985 [1902]) bemoaned the disappearance of religion from the workplace in no uncertain terms. The demise of the Protestant 'spirit of capitalism' had turned the workplace into a spiritless 'iron cage'; the home of 'specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart'; in ironic tone, the home of a 'nullity' that 'imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved' (: 182). Since these early days, sociologists of religion have used a battery of gauges to chart what has been happening to Christianity. There is now a formidable amount of data. The website, 'British Religion in Numbers' (www.brin.ac.uk) is an invaluable resource. The three outstanding researchers today, Callum Brown, Steve Bruce and David Voas, are based in Britain. To set the scene, Bruce (1996) states, 'in so far as we can measure any aspect of religious interest, belief or action and can compare 1995 with 1895, the only description of change between the two points is "decline"' (: 273). Evidence of collapse Church attendance Tracking change from the middle of the nineteenth century Britain, Alasdair Crockett and David Voas (2006) demonstrate 'a relentless fall in church attendance since the 1851 Census of Religious Worship' (: 567). Dwelling on decline in England during recent decades, Christian Research (2005) reports that 11.7 per cent of the population