{"id":12007,"date":"2017-02-23T23:27:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T07:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=12007"},"modified":"2017-02-23T23:27:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T07:27:37","slug":"language-in-a-secular-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/language-in-a-secular-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Language in a secular age."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The immanent frame<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Immanent frame: A constructed social space that frames our lives entirely within a natural (rather than supernatural) order.\u00a0 It is the circumscribed space of the modern social imaginary that precludes transcendence. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Immanentization:\u00a0 The process whereby meaning, significance, naturalistic universe without any reference to transcendence.\u00a0 A kind of \u201cenclosure.\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charles Taylor in his book, A Secular Age, introduces several technical terms and phrases, or uses common terms in a special way.\u00a0 To help readers become familiar with these terms, to be able to recall their meaning easily, I here provide a brief glossary. [3]<\/a>\u00a0 James Smith is who provided this resource.\u00a0 It would have been incredibly helpful if the same had been at the front of Taylor\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Language is such an important part of writing and introducing new thoughts and processing old thoughts.\u00a0 Most of the reading we have done over the past two years has contained a glossary of words that have been redefined, super defined or a whole new construct for a word.\u00a0 This process of bringing new language and using old language in a new way can be confusing or it can really be enlightening.\u00a0 The English language is very flexible when it comes to using it to bring an author\u2019s thoughts to the surface.\u00a0 \u00a0Even a singular word can really impact the outcome of the application.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his book, How Not to Be Secular, James Smith brings this thought concerning even a specific word.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An introduction to a kind of elasticity to language that creates just enough openness to potentially rupture the closed take on the immanent frame.\u00a0 This reenchantment of language is a direct protest against the flattening that resulted from univocity, which reduced language to designation. [4]<\/a> But this can\u2019t just hinge on words in isolation, as if the issue were just finding the right lexicon, some \u201cneologism\u201d that all of a sudden breaks open the brass ceiling.\u00a0 Any \u201cconcentrated breakthrough in a word is only made possible through a host of others, references, invocations, questionings, against which background the performative power can act in this word. \u00a0So \u201cthe power to make us resonate builds through a whole constellation, before erupting as it may in a single word or phrase.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, my thoughts on this continue to grow.\u00a0 As words are redefined they can undermine a whole thought process because they give a loop hole to the desired end. \u00a0\u00a0Or they can shine such a bright light on a new idea that it sticks with the audience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Concerning this immanent frame Taylor give this thought process. \u201cBut my whole reading here will be challenged.\u00a0 I have distinguished the immanent frame, on one hand and two equally possible \u201cspins\u201d open and closed, on the other.\u00a0 Some people will feel that the immanent frame calls out for one reading.\u00a0 True, we can adopt the other view by dint of determined (and not called intellectually honest) \u201cspinning,\u201d but one reading is the obvious, the \u201cnatural one.\u201d [6]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, what does all this spinning do?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I find in this writing the same issue that Noll brought up, intelligence. \u00a0The use of intelligence can lead to clarity and significance.\u00a0 Or intelligence can lead to greater confusion because of the circles that it takes around the subject at hand.\u00a0 Becoming so intellectual that finding the thread of truth and the content of belief is along the lines of CWS\u2019s.\u00a0 \u00a0The intellectual pursuit of describing our view on life being all the same whether we have faith (theocratic) or we are much more cosmic in our belief.\u00a0 Intellect uses words to build or discredit an argument.\u00a0 I found powerful words in both books and highlighted them on purpose.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some words I find of interest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Natural <\/strong><\/p>\n

Supernatural<\/strong><\/p>\n

Miracle<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The picture of these three words is that the scientific view is natural, the God view would be supernatural and the word miracle throws the whole thing into a classic spin.\u00a0\u00a0 The natural can\u2019t explain the miracle.\u00a0 The supernatural fully embraces the miracle as from God and proof of the supernatural.\u00a0 Natural can\u2019t handle the miracle because it is outside of that thought process.\u00a0 The circle of a word.\u00a0 Miracle would be the word that holds the power to build or disrupt.\u00a0 To prove or to disprove.\u00a0 One word.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some more words I find fascinating in these books:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Religious fanaticism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientific shape of the immanent order<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picture<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Religions not only menaces these goals with it fanaticism, but it also undercuts reason, which comes to be seen as rigorously requiring scientific materialism.\u00a0 The Picture is a background to our thinking.\u00a0 For some this thought process brings a response from the inside.\u00a0 Or the thought that \u201ca picture held us captive.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 What is in your background does affect your viewpoint.\u00a0 Overcoming a vantage point is not easy and can lend itself to your immanent frame.<\/p>\n

So, these words are pivotal in understanding the secular age and in understanding how not to be secular.<\/p>\n

I thought this was the best \u201cword\u201d picture to homogenize both authors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You: standing on the plains and having winds pulling you to:<\/p>\n

Now to belief<\/p>\n

Now to unbelief<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your picture may contain religious fanaticism or it might have scientific shape and you might feel like you are being held \u201ccaptive\u201d to whatever was first installed as your background.\u00a0 What will it be? Belief or Unbelief, openness or closure. \u00a0\u00a0The winds of the secular age are powerfully struggling with the desire to (not) be secular and in the end which direction will ultimately win?\u00a0 The incredible answer is that \u201cYOU\u201d get to decide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I get to let my intellectual deviation interact with the reform master narrative to explain \u201cmy\u00a0 beliefs\u201d today.\u00a0 I am pulled by the winds of belief more than unbelief.\u00a0 I am attracted to the background picture of my past while trying to view other people backgrounds as valid. I believe in the supernatural more than the natural and have experienced a miracle.\u00a0 My \u201ctransformative perspective\u201d is that the view, essential to religion, that fullness requires the transformation of the human beyond mere this-worldly flourishing.\u00a0 So, religion is not just a collection of beliefs about supernatural entities:\u00a0 it engenders a way of life that is transformative.\u201d[8]<\/a> \u00a0So, I am going to continue learning How (not) To Be Secular in The Secular Age.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> James K. A. Smith, How Not to be Secular<\/em>, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 141.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Smith, 141.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Smith, 140.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Charles Taylor, A Secular Age <\/em>(London, England: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 758.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Taylor, 760.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Taylor, 550.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Taylor, 549.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Smith,143.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The immanent frame   Immanent frame: A constructed social space that frames our lives entirely within a natural (rather than supernatural) order.\u00a0 It is the circumscribed space of the modern social imaginary that precludes transcendence. [1]   Immanentization:\u00a0 The process whereby meaning, significance, naturalistic universe without any reference to transcendence.\u00a0 A kind of \u201cenclosure.\u201d [2] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[676,833,663,184],"class_list":["post-12007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp6","tag-james-k-a-smith","tag-lgp6","tag-taylorsecularage","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}