The Fall of Secularism

insidecatholic.com ^ | 9/10/08 | Gerald J. Russello

[Publius804]

The Fall of Secularism

by Gerald J. Russello

9/10/08

Recently, the influential German philosopher Jürgen Habermas spoke of the emergence of a "post-secular" society. It had long been thought that as societies grew in technological and economic power, and as the risks of daily life that had been so common for generations faded beneath the safety of plentiful food, a social welfare system, and medical skill, the need for religion would fade. This was the so-called "secularization thesis," which held sway among anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists for decades.

However, as Habermas notes, this thesis has come under attack in recent years, and is now almost completely exploded. It suffered from a number of defects, not least of which was a Europe-centered approach and the confusion between modernization, which implies technological prowess, and secularization, which is a more charged term meaning the rejection of religious belief. What these post-secular societies shall become is still unclear, but Habermas concludes that citizens of secular states need to accommodate themselves to seeing their fellow religious citizens as equal participants in the public sphere, and implies that the age of the purely secular state has passed.

Catholics have a rich intellectual tradition reflecting on the secular, beginning with the earliest ages of the Church. After all, the term "secular" is derived from saeculum, which identified, for example, "secular" clergy, who were in the world and were not members of "regular" clergy, those governed by a rule (regula).

More generally, the word came to describe, as scholar Robert Markus has written, a middle ground between the sacred and profane, in which all can have a common interest. This was something new in Western history, as the Greeks and Romans did not have a strong concept of the secular.

[Chaguito]

IMO Post-secular => spiritual vacuum => rush of islamism into Europe => decline/fall of the civilization. Don’t think post-secular = wholesale re-embrace of Christianity.

[givemELL]

Islam ready and proactively looking forward to filling all current secular and to be post-secular voids if that is the case....the rest of the world had better get-on-the-stick for it has a head start via the 100 year planned Muslim Brotherhood project begun in the eighties and discovered by the Swiss in 1991.

[paudio]

Don’t think post-secular = wholesale re-embrace of Christianity.

You are right. I'm thinking to argue using post-modernist tenet: if all cultures are deserved to be treated the same, why do we have to privilege Islam in Europe and put the 'local' culture, ie, Christianity, on a disadvantage position?

[hinckley buzzard]

100 year planned Muslim Brotherhood project begun in the eighties and discovered by the Swiss in 1991.

Interesting. I recall back in the early eighties having a discussion with my pastor about a "five year plan" the Lutherans were considering. I pointed out that it made sense for secular powers like the USSR because they couldn't see past their own lifespan at the most. But if we had the faith of a risen God in our hearts, why shouldn't we initiate a five hundred year plan, knowing we would bequeath it unfinished to our children and their children, an act of faith like those great medieval cathedrals, where a stonecarver could spend his life and not see it finished but set his apprentice son to carry on the work in his place.

He got one of those famous "deer in the headlights" look on his face, mumbled something vague and changed the subject. Scarey to think the moslem brotherhood has that kind of faith but we don't even want to consider it.

[AndyTheBear]

Scarey to think the moslem brotherhood has that kind of faith but we don't even want to consider it.

Disagree. Trust God handle the big stuff, and do what He called you to do. Now if He doesn't happen to call you to help Him plan out the next 500 years...it hardly seems like a cause for alarm.