A 15-month major research project studying faith in a secular age was launched at The Catholic University of America Nov. 19 with a forum featuring Templeton Prize winner Charles Taylor and Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George.
An interesing distinction was made by Charles Taylor. In his remarks, Taylor said contemporary secular society creates faith challenges unlike those of past generations.
Today, Taylor sees a society where people fall into categories of “seekers” or “dwellers.” Seekers he defines as those who don’t want to be told by others what to believe. In a religious context, this may mean that they’re people who are willing to be part of a religious tradition or who are looking to reconnect with a faith, said Taylor. As Father McLean described Taylor’s work, dwellers are those who want things decided for them, those who are inclined to commit to “things which are true and old.” He noted that this puts the church in a difficult position. “The degree to which it clarifies and makes things decisive is a problem for seekers,” said Father McLean. “And the degree to which it leaves things open and undecided is a problem for the dwellers. In these circumstances, I wouldn’t want to be a bishop.”
St. Paul held these two poles together in his own Christian communities. He believed in the power of the Spirit working in the lives of the members of the churches he founded, believing they could work out the development of their Christian community in his absence. At the same time he preached and taught, corrected and persuaded, called for reconciliation and fervor. Whether we look at our own families, communities, parishes, friendships, or the universal Church, this way blazed by Paul could open up new avenues for us today, whether we deal with seekers or dwellers.
Cardinal George said he thinks Taylor “does us all a great deal of good” by challenging people to consider “how can I be holy in a secular age?” He feels people are basically interested in being holy. He suggested that an appropriate way of looking at the problem is St. Augustine’s example of the tug between the sacred and the secular as two sides of a theater, played out in the world in the middle.
“The saving of Christianity as a whole is to go back to the resurrection and the cross of Christ,” Cardinal George said. “You cannot escape from the world if you believe that the Lord has risen because the resurrected Lord walks beyond the world. … He has transcended the world but has not escaped it.”
He described one of the choices for how a secular society operates in the contemporary world as a closed, secular public square, where the civil dynamic works to eliminate religion from society; what results is something like the former Soviet Union, where there was no freedom of worship.
On the other hand, in a secular, but open public square “as the pope thinks we have in he US,” religion can helpfully influence civil society itself, primarily through the actions of individuals, he said.
“The hallmark of an open society is trust in the process,” Cardinal George said. As long as the governing process is open and transparent and trustworthy, “then you can have even dishonest people and the process will enable us all to live in peace and keep seeking.”
via Catholic News | Panel on Faith in a Secular Age Launches Philosophy Project | American Catholic.
Filed under: faith and sociey
