{"id":25449,"date":"2020-01-17T12:01:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T20:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25449"},"modified":"2020-01-17T12:01:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T20:01:07","slug":"a-secular-age-or-emergence-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-secular-age-or-emergence-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Secular Age or Emergence Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Taylor\u2019s massive treatise on secularism, A Secular Age<\/em>, seeks to explain the shift in our belief system which focuses on the conditions of belief; \u201cThe shift to secularity in this sense consists, among other things, of a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others and frequently not the easiest to embrace.\u201d[1]<\/a> Taylor seeks to understand how we in the Western world went from believing wholesale in Christianity to a cafeteria-style of belief systems that lets us pick and choose from a menu of options that suit our tastes. Smith points out, \u201cAs you\u2019ll notice, these questions are not concerned with what people believe as much as with what is believable.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the ways Taylor believes we arrived at this point of Secularism is through the \u201cprocess of disenchantment\u201d; this is ridding of the beliefs in the spiritual world of evil forces, demons, and other moral forces.[3]<\/a> However, it is interesting that while Taylor believes in disenchantment, it seems that the level of fantasy novels and movies has risen to new levels. Movies and television shows feature zombies, wizards, and all kinds of magical creatures. It seems even if the supernatural has been taken out of our belief systems, it has been reinvented in other ways. Maybe this focus on the supernatural shows a deep-seated need for something beyond the mind and body paradigm of secularism.<\/p>\n

Possibly, the rise in Secularism and the changes described by Taylor can be linked to something else. Phyllis Tickle presents another explanation of the changes which took place from the years 1500 to 2000, stating, \u201cEvery five hundred years, give or take a decade or two, Western culture, along with those parts of the world that have been colonized or colonialized by it, goes through a time of enormous upheaval, a time in which essentially every part of it is reconfigured.\u201d[4]<\/a> Tickle has named this shift, \u201cThe Great Emergence\u201d and defines it as \u201can across-the-board and still-accelerating shift in every single part and parcel of our lives as members in good standing of twenty-first-century Western or westernized civilization.\u201d[5]<\/a> From this emergence Tickle believes there is a new form of Christianity, Emergence Christianity. \u201cA central characteristic or principle of Emergence Christianity is its aggressive belief in inclusivity and the importance of diversity in worship and in community.\u201d[6]<\/a> Emergence Christianity also embraces deinstitutionalization, is comfortable with the physical sciences, is techno-savvy, and embraces social justice. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Although Taylor and Tickle present two different views of what is happening in the Western world in the last 500 years or so, they both speak to an enormous shift in the way beliefs are thought of in our society. Yes, there is a rise in secularism, but there also seems to be many young people who attend non-denominational churches and it seems that many are embracing less traditional ways of worship. One only needs to look at the popularity of churches like Hillsong to a young adult to know there is growth in Christianity but in new forms.<\/p>\n

Living in Washington, DC, I see the rise in secularism on the one hand, but I also see young adults embracing new ways of worshiping at the same time. Perhaps secularism and emergence Christianity are like two trains running parallel to one another. I think Taylor and Tickle both give us a lot to think about for the future of the Church and society in general.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith, James K. A. How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor.<\/em> Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014.<\/p>\n

Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age.<\/em> Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

Tickle, Phyllis. Emergence Christianity: What It Is, Where it is Going, and Why it Matters.<\/em> Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>. Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age<\/em>. 2007:3.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>. Smith, James K. A. How (Not) to be Secular<\/em>. 2014: 19.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>. \u00a0Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age<\/em>. 2007:29.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>. Tickle, Phyllis. Emergence Christianity<\/em>. 2012: 17.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>. Ibid., 25.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>. Ibid., P-1.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>. Ibid., 130-135.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Taylor\u2019s massive treatise on secularism, A Secular Age, seeks to explain the shift in our belief system which focuses on the conditions of belief; \u201cThe shift to secularity in this sense consists, among other things, of a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"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":[1109,835,1735,1100],"class_list":["post-25449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-secular-age","tag-charles-taylor","tag-emergence-christianity","tag-how-not-to-be-secular","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25449","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\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25451,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25449\/revisions\/25451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}