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…
By: Jason Kennedy on February 23, 2017
This week I ran across a story of a couple that became Christian in a heavily Islamic country. Within two weeks of the man’s conversion, he was arrested, tortured, and starving in a cell. His story is so remarkable to me because he described his pre-Christian world and culture as being closed. Their country controlled…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on February 22, 2017
If the Eucharist is an act of defiance and a way to re-member the body of Christ back together, then torture is the antithesis of this, as it is breaks down the person and dismembers the community. When people start to “disappear” from the shameful experiences and choices made, the church threatens to “disappear” if…
By: Katy Drage Lines on February 22, 2017
Appetizers This weekend, I visited the Museum of Man in San Diego, and explored the Cannibal exhibit. Occasionally, cannibalism occurs in dire survival situations; more often though, cannibalism is ritually or medicinally practiced in order for the partaker to consume the power of the partaken. English royalty drank skull powder for health, and Richard the…
By: Rose Anding on February 22, 2017
The conclusion of the Secular Question The Shift… A big part of the shift is that the condition of belief have changed. Therefore. whatever we believe is detestable or contestable. Nature is what has changed…Secularism Taylor’s Book, Secular Age, Plays Out in the British Court Foster parent ban: ‘this is a secular state’, say…
By: Mary Walker on February 21, 2017
The future Kingdom of God is brought into the present to bring the world’s time under the rule of Divine Providence, and thus create spaces of resistance where bodies belong to God, not the state.[1] … Christians themselves are called to create concrete alternative practices that open up a different kind of economic space…
