Sacred Modes of Being in a Postsecular WorldAndrew Hass "If our present phase of late modernity is its own Götterdämmerung, playing out the final act of a perpetual cycle, then its libretto must consist of that still persistent antagonism that sets "religion" against "the secular". The drama, in the fading light of the gods, finds its dynamic in religion's fight for survival, even if the secular too betrays its own fallibility. That fight is the West's fight; but then, the antagonism is the West's antagonism. As Nietzsche said, "'World' is a Christian term of abuse". But if, in the idolisation of this world, the secular has now too become an idol, then the passage from Götter to Götzen is circular, insofar as the movement of the one seems to inhere in the movement of the other, just as the twilight of the one seems to invoke the twilight of the other. All religions will at some point succumb to idolatry; all idolatries will at some point succumb to religion. Nietzsche saw this right at the beginning of positivism: "I am told that that cleverest of Jesuits, A. Comte, who wanted to lead his Frenchmen to Rome via the detour of science, found his inspiration in this book [De Imitatione Christi]. I believe it: 'the religion of the heart"-- |
Contents
The Sacred Opening | 15 |
Refiguring the Sacred and the Secular | 31 |
Sacred Thinking? Thinking Theologically with David Jasper | 59 |
Theology as Literature Rhetoric and Ideology | 87 |
Hope in the Sacred Community | 112 |
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Literature and Theology | 137 |
The Desert Is in the Words We Speak | 205 |
| 234 | |
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action actual anamnesis artist becomes beginning Blake body called chapter Chinese Christ Christian church comes continue creation creative critical cultural David dead death Derrida distinct divine enacted Eucharist event existence experience expression faith Figure Gauguin give God’s heaven Heidegger hope human idea imagination important impossible interpretation Jasper John kind language literary literature liturgical living London meaning mind mode move movement nature offer original Oxford painting participation particular Paul perhaps person perspective philosophical poem poet poetry political possible present pure question reason reference relation relationship religion religious remains rhythm sacramental Sacred Body Sacred Community Sacred Desert secular seems sense silence space speak Spirit studies suggests theology things thinking thought tradition trans translation true truly truth understanding University Press Western words writes York