{"id":20772,"date":"2019-01-16T20:17:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T04:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20772"},"modified":"2019-01-16T20:17:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T04:17:20","slug":"secularism-disenchantment-non-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/secularism-disenchantment-non-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Secularism = Disenchantment = Non Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“We haven\u2019t yet solved the problem of God,\u201d the Russian critic Belinsky once shouted across the table at Turgenev, \u201cand you want to eat!\u201d [1] This phrase puts into simple perspective my reading of A Secular Age<\/em> by Canadian Charles Taylor, a Roman Catholic, Emeritus Professor, as well as the prestigious winner of the Templeton Prize. [2] The paramount question of “Is there a God?” must be carefully considered by all, but unfortunately most people are distracted by much less insignificant issues like “What’s for dinner?” and “How’s the weather?” Satan has orchestrated diversions and significant apathy towards God, so much so that John Lennon once famously said,<\/p>\n

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” [3]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Beatles more popular than Jesus? Land sakes alive! Some other guy even wondered out loud, “Is Church or the National Football League more popular on Sundays?” [4] Looking at the empty seats in our church pews, one wonders if he might be on to something. Now I fully understand why we must discuss, with Taylor, if we are in a secular age.<\/p>\n

This week’s authors, Charles Taylor and James Smith, are REALLY intelligent. Hello, new semester! Goodness gracious, when one author has to write a book to explain another author’s book, there must be some incredible depth there. I won’t even begin to claim I know a FRACTION of what they are writing about. But, how does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time! So this is my attempt to break down the topic of Taylor’s view of “secularism” into a few understandable bite-sized morsels. Here goes…<\/p>\n

Secularism. When my mind went back to lectures I heard while preparing for the ministry, I heard phrases like “America is fast becoming a secular society” or “Europe is the most secular continent on planet earth”. Secularism was explained to me using descriptive words like “Godless.” Closer to home, those who worried about religious freedoms eroding, cited inappropriate applications of the “separation of church and state” as being another sign of America riding the fast train to secularism. For example, taking prayer out of schools, suggesting the removal of In God We Trust<\/strong> from our money, and tearing down the 10 Commandments from public buildings, etc.<\/p>\n

Taylor and Smith argue that secularism, or the secular age, is defined as when “religious belief would decrease as modernity progressed”. [5] Reminds me of another word from my religious studies, “Postmodernism”.<\/p>\n

A word that Taylor addresses often (28 times) is “disenchantment” and this is a word I can put my mind around. I see secularism all around my Conference and hear folks saying secularism is due to people’s disenchantment with the church. We hear about the “de-churched” who have been wounded by the church, or the “nones” who claim no religious affiliation because of the hypocritical behavior of Christians. Taylor states,<\/p>\n

This \u201cdisenchantment of the world\u201d leaves us with a universe that is dull, routine, flat, driven by rules rather than thoughts, a process that culminates in bureaucracy run by \u201cspecialists without spirit, hedonists without heart\u201d. [6]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There you go, when religion became all about the rules, instead of relationship, it created disenchanted people and eventually speeds our decline to secularism. Enter imperfect specialists (pastors) who place more emphasis on outer behavior rather than the inner work of the Holy Spirit, and of course people will be disenchanted, or de-churched.<\/p>\n

I was amazed that Taylor quoted a previous author of our program’s study, Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism),<\/em> and actually got the idea of disenchantment from Weber’s “iron cage of life” analogy, where individuals are trapped in systems based heavily on control, which is what rules-based religion breeds. [7]<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Smith helps decode disenchantment (38 times) when he says,<\/p>\n

“The decisive forces of religious belief and participation wither in the face of modernity’s disenchantment of the world…People who self-identify as secular are usually identifying as areligious.” [8]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My explanation of this disenchantment talk comes from a review of Taylor’s work by John Patrick Diggens in the New York Times. His article titled\u00a0The Godless Delusion\u00a0<\/em>blames disenchantment and secularism on a premise of non-transformation. [9] Basically what he argues is that disenchantment in modern times is due to the apparent lack of transformation in the daily lives of those who call themselves Christian. Christians are apparently no different from the rest of the world and when the rest of the world looks at us, they unfortunately shake their heads at our apparent lack of lasting inner change.<\/p>\n

So there you have it–over 800 pages of Professor Taylor’s book reduced, in my mind at least, to three simple words: Secularism = disenchantment = non-transformation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0Diggins, John Patrick. “The Godless Delusion.” The New York Times. August 28, 2018. Accessed January 17, 2019. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/12\/16\/books\/review\/Diggins-t.html.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0Abbey, Ruth. “Biography of Charles Taylor.” Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica. January 1, 2014. Accessed January 17, 2019. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-Taylor.<\/p>\n

[3] Cleave, Maureen. “Beatles Bigger than Jesus.” The Beatles Number 9. March 17, 1966. Accessed January 17, 2019. https:\/\/www.beatlesnumber9.com\/beatlesbigger.html<\/p>\n

[4] Tapscott, Mark. “Is Church or the NFL More Popular?” The Daily Caller. January 14, 2016, Accessed January 17, 2019. https:\/\/www.thedailycaller.com.html.<\/p>\n

[5]\u00a0Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age<\/i>. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018. 2.<\/p>\n

[6] Ibid., 21.<\/p>\n

[7].\u00a0Weber, Max, Peter R. Baehr, and Gordon C. Wells. The Protestant Ethic and the “spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings<\/i>. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.<\/p>\n

[8]\u00a0Smith, James K. A. How (not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor<\/i>. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015.<\/p>\n

[9]\u00a0Diggins, John Patrick. “The Godless Delusion.” The New York Times. August 28, 2018. Accessed January 17, 2019. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/12\/16\/books\/review\/Diggins-t.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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