![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/20100510__100513-eat-Bento.jpg\")
<\/a>In this way, a secular person goes about their lives, not as an atheist or an agnostics, but indifferent. In this framework, God becomes one possible choice to fill an empty space in the bento box that makes up a person\u2019s life. Secularism is not a throwing away of the \u201cold\u201d or an iconoclastic destruction of authority. It is a framework of general indifference or even an equalization of values where intrinsic value is not recognized as much as the value that choice imposes.<\/p>\nHow does this play out in real-time? A colleague of mine tells a story of a university student in Berlin who was asked what they thought about the possibility of living forever in heaven. The student responded, \u201cWhy would I ever want to live forever? The burden of making choices for an eternity would be overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet, even though Taylor describe secularism as a departure from the course of human history, it is\u2014in a way\u2014a return to the course of human history all the way back to the garden. May puts it this way. \u201cThis is the history of the autonomous will asserting itself against external claims.” [6]<\/p>\n
Though most Christians might not argue the fact of secularism, they do debate the best way for the church to impact the secular world in which we live. The heart of the debate is not one of \u201cspin\u201d in the sense that Taylor speaks of a held story that prevents someone from seeing \u201creality\u201d as it really is, but possibly one of \u201cnostalgia\u201d and longing for a time when things were not as they presently are. [7] However, because of or even in spite of the debate, in recent years there has indeed been unique expressions of faith communities springing up that are reminiscent of\u00a0 McLaren\u2019s, The Church on the Other Side<\/i>. [8]<\/p>\n
The world is changing, the reality of secularism is upon us. The mission of the church does not change, the bento box still longs to be filled. The questions leaders ask, and the answers they choose are as important now as they ever were. Secular people may be the greatest unreached people group in our world today.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
- \n
- Barnes, Julian. Nothing to be Frightened of<\/i>. Reprint ed. Vintage, 2009.<\/li>\n
- Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age<\/i>. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007.<\/li>\n
- Ibid., 1.<\/li>\n
- Ibid., 25-212.<\/li>\n
- Ibid., 580.<\/li>\n
- May, Collins. (2009). A Secular\u00a0Age.\u00a0Society, 46<\/i>(2), 199-203.<\/li>\n
- Taylor, 551, 613,<\/li>\n
- McLaren, Brian D.\u00a0The Church on the Other Side<\/i>. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in God, but I miss him.\u201d [1] The now famous quote by Julian Barns was considered \u201csoppy\u201d by his philosopher brother and has become a type of mantra for the secular age in which we live.\u00a0 No other person has approached secularism in such depth as did Charles Tayor in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"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":[186],"class_list":["post-15887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-taylor","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15887"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15900,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887\/revisions\/15900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age<\/i>. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007.<\/li>\n