Even though How (Not) to be Secular <\/em><\/strong>is a more concise work, it is not a light book.\u00a0 This book is both deep and wide.\u00a0 It pulls valuable nuggets from Taylor\u2019s tome and makes them relevant to the current condition of the church.<\/p>\n Rather than simply summarize Smith\u2019s book about a book, I have chosen to comment on some of the most thought-provoking quotes that I encountered:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTaylor asserted that \u2018a society is secular insofar as religious belief or belief in God is understood to be one option among others, and thus contestable.\u2019\u201c <\/strong><\/em>(Smith, 21)<\/p>\n Originally, the term secular meant \u201cmundane.\u201d\u00a0 Basically, anything that was not sacred was secular.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0A house was secular, and a church was sacred.\u00a0 A farmer had a secular job and a priest had a sacred one.\u00a0 The farmer might have a fiery passion for God, but he was still \u201csecular.\u201d<\/p>\n The term \u201csecular\u201d eventually become used to mean anti-religious.\u00a0 If you are \u201csecular\u201d you are not a religious person.\u00a0 Your belief system does not value the Christian viewpoint.<\/p>\n This initial quote about Taylor\u2019s view of the secular is interesting.\u00a0 In the passage where this quote is found, Smith is arguing Taylor\u2019s point that if a society holds that it is acceptable to NOT hold to any religious belief, that society is secular.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cWhat we look back on as ancient \u2018art objects\u2019 were, in fact and function, liturgical instruments, etc.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>(Smith, 74)<\/p>\n I enjoyed the discussion on how the Reformation and the rise of secularism affected art.\u00a0 Smith points out that art used to have a purely functional purpose.\u00a0 They depicted a reality.\u00a0 Art was used for instruction, politics, etc.\u00a0 As society became secular, art moves from representing reality to creating its own reality.\u00a0 Instead of a painting that showed a real scene, art began to show imagined scenes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn this newly fashioned world, closed to anything transcendent, we are left alone without meaning; if there\u2019s to be meaning, it\u2019s something we have to make.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (Smith, 102)<\/p>\n In a post-Christian society, any type of a personal encounter with God is explained away as a psychosocial delusion.\u00a0 Could the rise of extreme sports, thrill-seeking, fad remedies (i.e. essential oils, magnetic bracelets, etc.), and unspiritual spiritual disciplines (i.e.meditation-free yoga) be an indicator of a yearning for something more than this present reality?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>There is a certain irony, however:\u00a0 while the therapeutic was meant to throw off the guilt and burden of spiritual responsibility, and hence the scowl of the clergy and the confessor, \u2018now we are forced to \u00a0go to new experts, therapists, doctors\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (Smith, 107)<\/p>\n Humans were created with a hunger for the eternal.\u00a0 We want to know that our lives have meaning. \u00a0\u00a0We need to live our lives in a way that our Creator is pleased.\u00a0 Our need for the spiritual will come out one way or another.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur problem is not some penumbra of illness pressing in on our \u2018good\u2019 normal; our problem is our \u2018normal.\u2019\u00a0 On the spiritual register, \u2018the normal, everyday, beginning situation of the soul is to be partly in the grip of evil.\u201d<\/strong> <\/em>(Smith, 108)<\/p>\n These words do not fit with today\u2019s society.\u00a0 Many educated people in our society downplay the concept of \u201cevil.\u201d\u00a0 Bad people are not truly bad, they are \u201cmisguided\u201d or \u201cmisunderstood.\u201d Yet, the Bible teaches that evil is real and powerful.\u00a0 Without \u201cevil\u201d there is no need for the atoning death of Jesus.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2026he is not primarily interested in winning an argument.\u00a0 Rather, his concern is to foster a \u2018badly needed\u2019 conversation.\u00a0 How might evangelism and outreach in a secular age be considered for just such a \u2018conversation.\u2019\u00a0 Could unapologetic \u2018witnessing\u2019 also involve attentive \u2018listening.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/strong> (Smith, 120)<\/p>\n This is an important conversation for pastors and mission leaders to have with their people.\u00a0 Some churches offer deep courses on apologetics for their people.\u00a0 Yet, they do not teach their people how to LISTEN to someone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTaylor suggests to those who convert to unbelief \u2018because of science\u2019 are less convinced by data and move moved by the form of the story that science tells\u2026The Christian response to such converts to unbelief is not to have an argument about the data or \u2018evidences\u2019 but rather to offer an alternative story that offers more robust, complex understanding of the Christian faith.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> (Smith, 77)<\/p>\n This is an amazing concept.\u00a0 In past decades, we were taught that secular people have bad beliefs about God.\u00a0 Our job was to memorize the content of books about apologetics in order to win arguments.\u00a0 In essence, evangelism was about dominating your opponent and convincing him\/her that he\/she was wrong.<\/p>\n Smith proposes that intelligent non-Christians might actually be intrigued by Jesus.\u00a0 Instead of arguing random points about religion, tell the stories about Jesus.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In summary, James K.A. Smith makes some valuable observations via Charles Taylor.\u00a0 Those who are interested in making an impact on future generations can gain insight from How (Not) to be Secular.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Smith, James K. A. How (not) to be secular: reading Charles Taylor. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015.<\/p>\n Taylor, Charles. A secular age<\/i>. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I serve at a multi-staff church in Fort Worth, Texas. One of my roles that I have is to develop evangelism strategies for our church. \u00a0As I review and evaluate plans, strategies, and programs that have to do with leading people to Christ, a word that often comes up is the word \u201csecular.\u201d This week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":15805,"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":[835,828,829,957,1101],"class_list":["post-15801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charles-taylor","tag-james-smith","tag-secular","tag-stu-cocanougher","tag-the-sevens-are-back-in-2018","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801","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\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15801"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15808,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801\/revisions\/15808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/jesus-t-shirt.jpg\")
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