Contemplating Culture: A Missionary Walk Through A Secular Age

In this episode we tackle the entirety of Chapter 3, The Great Disembedding. With the separation of religion and society, individuals can come to have identity and purpose that is independent of a particular formulation of these. Taylor points to three anchors that had been holding this relationship in place: i) social order, ii) the cosmos, iii) human good. As each of these comes undone, how we view ourselves and how we conceive of society both shift significantly. What is society, and why does how we think about it matter for missionaries? Reflection: 1) What frustrates you, and how does this reveal your notion of what society is or should be? How is this impacting how you operate as a missionary? 2) Who are you being called to walk alongside in accompaniment and discipleship? 3) Spend some time with the Holy Spirit seeking to be reconnected to the greater whole, rather than being only a solitary "I". References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (146-158) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

In this week's episode we discuss how polite society and the glorification of reason eventuated in a decline in intimacy. How did the development of table manners play a role in shame of self-exposure and vulnerability? We trace this and other historical developments as we seek to discover the ways that the hangover of society-prescribed shame still lives in us today. NB: The audio quality on this episode is lower than normal due to a technical issue not identified at time of recording. Our apologies. Reflection: When in my life do I notice an sense of shame emerge that is not grounded in my objective present? How have I internalised shame in ways that I am held captive by it? Spend time bringing these to Jesus and allow Him to set you free. References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (137-142) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

In this episode we delve further into Chapter 2 (The of Disciplinary Society) by looking at the rise of reason. As the writings of Justus Lipsius find their way into the right hands at the right time, a program for Christian neo-Stoicism emerges. Can reason and hard work really bring about perfect human living? If reason is a gift from God, is it enough that we use this gift well? What is the role of worship in all of this? Reflection: How am I being called to grow in intimacy with God with my whole being, as opposed to following Him only by assent of will? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (112-125, 129-136) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

The journey towards a disciplined society was the introduction of civility to the masses; wide-scale discipline and programs to educate into (or safeguard against threats to a civilised society. Statecraft and religious reform become entangled in the movement, and perhaps this has a part to play in how tearing down "the establishment" led in centuries to come to tearing down "religion". In this episode we explore -the three avenues these reforms took: i) excellence and refinement, ii) ordered governance, iii) domestic peace -five programs that are indicative of how these avenues were actualised: i) poor laws, ii) popular culture crackdown, iii) shaping for improvement, iv) government structures, v) modes of discipline Kat closes us off with an Ignatian examen, a fruit of this period of history. References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (99-112) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

Was there really a time when nature wasn't taken under a microscope? When art and music was used to tell stories, and the thought of testing its limits hadn't really been explored? With this episode we begin looking at Chapter 2: The Rise of Disciplinary Society. Here, Charles Taylor begins by looking at the story of how humanity started looking at nature for its own sake. As we follow the story through to today, it becomes scary to realise how quickly treating nature as void of intrinsic purpose can lead us to treating people as void of intrinsic purpose; things/people start to be seen more explicitly as valuable for what they can do. References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (92-98) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

The new Christian transport is taking off: disenchantment and humanism start find movement in Christianity through inner personal devotion, uneasiness with sacramentals, and anxiety of judgment. We find Christianity swept up in the movements of reform, rejecting the old and charging on towards forging something new. Finding its peak in a Puritan Calvin society, it seems that remade, well-ordered society can become a human achievement. What we find however is that underneath is a deep anxiety, a society that we must constantly be at work to sustain, for God has been done away with as the sustainer. Is this anxiety one of the inheritances bequeathed to the Western world by history? What role does control play in all of this? With this episode we reach the end of Chapter 1: Bulwarks of Belief References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (75-88) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

The pagan fear of the dead and the unsettled souls in the afterlife starts to give way in Christianity to a fear of death itself, on account of personal judgment. The increasing notion of the individual person means that the final judgment starts to give way to each person's particular judgment. We see the rise of auricular confession, indulgences, concern for sexual sin. So how did this develop over the years, and where does it leave us now? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (66-70) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

Dissatisfaction has been a part of the human story since its beginning. But what happens when the widespread dissatisfaction of the masses is empowered with the belief that change is possible, and the tools to carry it out? In this episode we look at the drive for reform powered by dissatisfaction, and some of the implications in both ancient and modern history. What can learn from history, and what is our call moving forward? Reflections: Where does my own dissatisfaction lie within myself, and in the world? What am I called to do in response to dissatisfaction I encounter in myself, in the Church, in the world? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (60-63, 70-75) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

In this era when time is a resource, and a valuable one at that, it can be difficult to fathom a relationship with time that isn't based on equal units of chronological time. Is there another way of viewing time? In this episode we launch from Charles Taylor's notion of a common sense of higher time that slowly eroded, into an exploration of time as we know it. Are we slaves or free? Is time empty, or can it carry some meaning independent of what we bring to it or fill it with? Our longest conversation yet, and one that could have gone much longer! Reflections: Where does FOMO or external pressures create a lack of freedom for you in your life? What would it be like to add a connection to kairos time, like Jesus, into how you went through your days and weeks? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (55-59) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture Cartoon referenced: https://www.leunig.com.au/works/recent-cartoons/769-jomo

With the development of the buffered self, space slowly opens for people to shift from thinking primarily in the "I" instead of the "we". Slowly, society was no longer something held in place by God that we were part of, society became something we can (and must) make. In a disenchanted world, it started to become possible to imagine a world where the tensions of a hierarchical society were simply crafted out of existence: enter the French revolutions. In this week's episode we look at what sparked the period of revolutions and reform in France, and the impact of that experiment for the rest of the Western world. And for us today. Reflections: Where are the tension points in your life, in how you sit within society and your relationships? What would it be like to say yes to the "we" of society as opposed to only operating from a stance of the "I", the self? In what areas could you explore putting this into action? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (42-53) Website: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

In this episode we begin looking at the first of the three "bulwarks of belief", God the good spirit that protects us from a world of unruly spirits. With the progression of science examining the physical nature of the world, the mystery started to unravel and what was once a very "enchanted" world became slowly "disenchanted". As such, people began to shift from being "porous" (open to forces and meanings outside themselves) to "buffered" (able to close off to forces outside themselves and become their own makers of meaning). Is there a place for mystery in a disenchanted world? What do we make of the things we cannot explain? Reflections: Where are the areas of tension and mystery in your life? Spend some time with God as He holds these tensions in place, and holds you in the midst of it as you ponder References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (27-41) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture Article about the eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires, referred to in this episode: https://emmanuel.info/en/the-eucharistic-miracle-in-buenos-aires/

We begin Part 1, The Work of Reform. Over the coming episodes we will be exploring the dynamics at play that caused a flurry of movements that set out to "remake" society, rather than acceptance of the stability of how things were. In this episode we begin Chapter 1, the Bulwarks of Belief. Belief was held in place by three key fortresses, and as each of these began to be taken out from the wall and examined, suddenly the pastures outside belief became a possibility. In 500 years Western society went from Christian faith for the masses to a state where even the Christians remaining cannot help but be posed with the question of why they choose faith when there are so many other viable options; questioning has become inescapable. The next few episodes will delve deeper into each of these bulwarks. Reflections: How did I end up with the beliefs I have about God and the world? What keeps me here? What is the reason for the hope that I have? References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (25-26) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

Charles Taylor claims that the heart of modern secularity is "exclusive humanism", where a life can be conceived involving no goal beyond human flourishing. How did we get here? The stage is set for the eclipse of the tri-fold connections to transcendence:  a higher good,  for a higher power  for a time/place beyond this life Reflections: As the final episode breaking open ideas raised in the introduction, a guided reflection is included in this episode. What is the call for you at this time? Is it a call to community, compassion, remembering the transcendent, boldness, or something else? Spend some time with God exploring this References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (17-21) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

What shapes the background of belief? In this episode we explore elements of our contemporary world view which mean that belief today cannot be the same as belief 500 years ago. Ideas covered include: Distinctions such as natural/supernatural, immanent/transcendent, theist/atheist Assumptions we might have about people who sit in a different stance to us Pain points of the modern stances of unbelief Reflections: Take an element of today's discussion into conversation. What intrigued you? How does it fit with the world and people around you? Who is the most unlikely person in your life to come to faith? How would the marketing world abuse their pain points? Spend some time with God wondering about how the Gospel speaks into these pain points and pray for that References:  Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (8-12) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

How do we view this life? Does it end with death, or is there something beyond? In this episode we explore the human pursuit of fullness, and the shape this can take from different worldviews. Is death's door open or closed? Is our daily life shaped by FOMO or surrender, anxiety or freedom? What is the "full life" we are working towards? Reflections: Take something from today's episode into conversation with a friend or loved one. What is your pursuit of fullness influenced by? Notice in yourself the pressures of "I have to", "I need to", and identify times you need to remember the wider perspective of your life in order to  be free References: Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (6-8) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

The journey begins! In this episode we enter the first few pages of A Secular Age by Charles Taylor, looking at a few key ideas: Language shapes our experience of and reaction to the world Our world is in a new phase of being secular, where faith is no longer just (i) separated from the state or worldly things, or (ii) on the decline or openly opposed, but rather (iii), one option among many in the marketplace of options and opportunities in modern western society. Further, it is no longer an assumed foundation, but something that must be individually chosen irrespective of upbringing All of this impacts how we see ourselves in the world as Church, and the nature of the mission we take up For reflection: Have a conversation with someone about something you heard or thought about in today's episode How do you see 'the marketplace' at work in the world around you, and within you? What are some of the options available, and what is it like to be in the marketplace? References: ABC article referenced: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-25/russia-ukraine-invasion-borders-power-vladimir-putin-identity/100858372?fbclid=IwAR0qZ62enCHuwWVoKRxGZNA1eobjm1jfWX0OHJt2bKhnKd2Y_8dosJGChAg Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (1-4) Cartoons: https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture

What happens to our understanding of our world and who we are within it when we start to realise that there is a mystery surrounding the physical origins of humanity and the world?Charles Taylor highlights three themes that can emerge with this line of questioning:i) ruins and deep time (time), the sense that there is an unrecoverable past that we have emerged fromii) the sublime (space), the sense of the infinite expanse of nature at both the universe and microscopic levelsiii) the dark genesis of humanity (existence), the sense that our origins are mixed up mysteriously with that of the natural world around us, and we are perhaps less different than we might first imagineAs these directions spurt more and more avenues, so too does the no man's land between belief and atheism seem to widen. How are we to respond? We turn to a popular biblical narrative and return to the marketplace to find out.References:-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (335-351)

In this episode we explore two shifts that occur at the turn of the 19th century that start to provide meaningful shape to the experience of living at the time: i) the shift from a cosmos to the universe, ii) an understanding an acceptance of the evoluntionary process.As limits start to fade into a distant past, the imagination of the ordinary person slowly becomes more and more open to possibilities. Rather than despair, this should be a moment of hope for Christians as we realise that imaginations everywhere are open for the rich reality of the Gospel.References:-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (322-334)

In this episode we explore with Charles Taylor some of the felt dissatisfactions that begin to arise with the emergence of the buffered identity.In the realm of resonance, these include i) the notion that Deism is too tame and that we must take love seriously, ii) a revulsion at goodness being only at the level of self-interest, and iii) the feeling that life within the immanent order is too easily reduced to a code.In the realm of the romantic, these include i) the felt alienation of the self from the senses, ii) the felt alienation of the self from others, iii) the felt alienation of the self from nature. and iv) the felt sense of division between humanity and nature.In the realm of tragedy, these include i) the sense that pain and suffering are too easily denied, ii) the loss of the heroic, iii) the rejection of a flat and levelled down sense of happiness, and iv) the lack of a place for death in the immanent frame.References:-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (310-321)

In this episode we look at the objections of the Modern Moral Order to Orthodox Christianity:i) it offends reason by holding a place for mysteryii) it is authoritarian by holding an Almighty above us, offending both reason and freedomiii) it poses impossible problems of theodicyiv) it threatens the order of mutual benefit.Of these, we take a particular look at theodicy, and the range of responses people might take.References:-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (304-310)