By: Garfield Harvey on March 2, 2017
This week’s reading took a more subtle approach from recent weeks. Last few weeks we discussed the role of secularism but also the transformation of our global culture since the 1500s. Our challenge in this week’s reading as ministry leaders is that of isolation. The word itself suggests loneliness, so we (ministry leaders) have the…
By: Geoff Lee on March 2, 2017
In their book, Rebel Sell, Heath and Potter argue that, these days, everyone seems to be anti-consumerist – everyone is a rebel – everyone, it seems, nods in agreement as they watch films like Supersize Me. However things are not quite what they first appear. Their argument, in essence, is that rebellion against the system,…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on March 1, 2017
In an effort to solve social issues, countercultural movements have accidentally developed “solutions” that have actually created more social problems, according to authors Heath and Potter of Rebel Sell. The term rebel sell is defined as: ” It’s a sell that has been used not only to sell ordinary commercial goods, but also to sell…
By: Jim Sabella on March 1, 2017
In my teenage years, I was never really one of the “in” crowd or a part of the “cool” counterculture. I wasn’t anti-social. I had friends; we hung out. It’s just that I preferred to be outside fishing in a stream over sitting on the ground somewhere in protest. Not only that, there was no…
By: Mary Walker on March 1, 2017
Why is it that after more than fifty years the political left has been unable to stop the conspicuous consumption that it deplores? In their brilliant, witty, and appealing book, The Rebel Sell: why the culture can’t be jammed, Joseph Heath & Andrew Potter explain that the counterculture has failed to “change anything because the…
By: Pablo Morales on February 24, 2017
Summary Charles Taylor and James Smith have given us a detailed analysis of the secular age in which we live. Like an ideological GPS, they have shown us our chronological location in this map of secularism. From the age of ancien régime, to the age of moral order, to the age of mobilization, we are…
By: Geoff Lee on February 24, 2017
Being consumed – William T. Cavanaugh In his book on economics and Christian desire, Cavanaugh borrows from Augustine’s teaching on desire and disordered loves to examine the effects of consumerism on our lives and what a Christian/Catholic response to that might be. He quotes Augustine’s well-known refrain: “Thou hast made us for thyself,…
By: Chip Stapleton on February 24, 2017
First, let me begin by stating something that will be completely obvious to anyone that has engaged with William Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist & Being Consumed: There is simply no easy way to boil down all of what Cavanaugh is saying, and all of his important insight into one or two short sentences. If one were to…
By: Kristin Hamilton on February 23, 2017
A long, long time ago (about 500 years to be exact), in a couple of places far, far away (namely Germany and Switzerland), a group of reformers looked at the church in charge and, distressed by excesses and abuses, sought to make a BIG change. Some of them thought they could maybe make the change…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on February 23, 2017
[Just A Quick Note: This week we had two works published by William T. Canavaugh Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire and Torture and Eucharist. Both are great and so thought provoking! For the sake of this post, I am focusing my discussion on his Being Consumed. ] “The church is called to be a…
By: Kevin Norwood on February 23, 2017
The immanent frame Immanent frame: A constructed social space that frames our lives entirely within a natural (rather than supernatural) order. It is the circumscribed space of the modern social imaginary that precludes transcendence. [1] Immanentization: The process whereby meaning, significance, naturalistic universe without any reference to transcendence. A kind of “enclosure.” [2]…
By: Garfield Harvey on February 23, 2017
Last week, I found complexity in trying to divide my thoughts of two great books, which was a great injustice to the authors. Separating the takeaways of these books coincide with the very nature of this book as we discuss the idea of secularism. Smith and Taylor both show how secularism is associated with the…
By: Stu Cocanougher on February 23, 2017
I have just completed two excellent books by Catholic Theologian William T. Cavanaugh. These were: Cavanaugh, William T. Being Consumed: economics and Christian desire. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009. Cavanaugh, William T. Torture and Eucharist: theology, politics, and the body of Christ. Oxford UK: Blackwell, 2005. Both of…
By: Aaron Cole on February 23, 2017
Summary: A Secular Age by Charles Taylor is an exhaustive and narrative insight on what “secular” is and how we as people and planet got here. The unique mix of academic and story offers the reader a map of sorts which navigates the reader on a journey of how we became a secular society and…
By: Lynda Gittens on February 23, 2017
Cavanaugh states, “In the ideology of the free market, freedom is conceived as the absence of interference from others.” (Cavanaugh, Kindle, Location 81) Cavanaugh says, “Augustine’s view of freedom is more complex: freedom is not simply a negative freedom from, but freedom for, a capacity to achieve certain worthwhile goals. All of those goals are…
By: Phil Goldsberry on February 23, 2017
Introduction My Part I was concerned about the sacred becoming secular. But greater was finding the “map” to navigate the secular back to sacred. Taylor then challenged me again with semantics. I had heard years ago if you want to change the culture, change the language; Taylor proved that to be true. Taylor states that,…
By: Marc Andresen on February 23, 2017
Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age, could easily serve as a textbook for a college course on “Western Civilization,” tracing history along the thread of secularization: the difficult journey during which there has been a shift in the modern age from a social imaginary wherein unbelief was unimaginable to a time when belief is unthinkable. Through…
By: Claire Appiah on February 23, 2017
Charles Margrave Taylor—Secular Age Introduction Canadian born Charles Margrave Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University and the author of several books. He is highly esteemed in the academic community for his intellectual endeavors pertaining to philosophy in the political, social science, historical, and intellectual arenas. He is the recipient of various awards…
By: Jim Sabella on February 23, 2017
This week we are discussing two books both by William T. Cavanaugh. The first book is titled, Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ; the second is titled, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire. Several themes run through both books. Some of the major themes are oppression, power, freedom, and the individual. Another is Cavanaugh’s…
By: Aaron Peterson on February 23, 2017
I have marriage on the brain this week. This weekend Lisa and I will lead our annual marriage retreat at the Eagle’s Nest Bed & Breakfast in beautiful Big Bear, California. In fact, as soon as I post this blog we will start the over-2-hour trek from the San Fernando Valley up through the San…
