Contemplating Culture: A Missionary Walk Through A Secular Age

This week we look at one of the bequests of the shifting social imaginary: direct access society. As things started to become more 'secular' (relating exclusively to ordinary time), the importance of higher times and therefore those that mediate to these higher times (priests, kings, etc) diminishes. What unfolds is the direct-access citizen-state, and the implications of this are huge. We...

Why did the American Revolution hold where the French case failed? How can a society honour both individual freedom and the common good? In this episode we explore these and other questions as we look at the notion of "The People" as a commonly held notion distinct from religion and politics. Elements such as agreed-upon traditional practices, unifying spearhead figures, underlying philo...

In the second of three social imaginaries that we look at as mutations away from the religion/politics stronghold, we talk in this episode about the public sphere. Charles Taylor guides us through the changing landscape of dialogue that comes with commercial print media in the 1800s, as a trans-location, inter-referring conversation opens up. And the speed and reach of this dialogue has only ampli...

In this episode we look at the emergence of 'The Economy', an amoral object that we can talk about, the place where the happenings of society began to shift to. How did we get here, and what was it like before? The economy has truly taken root in the society of mutual benefit, where as Alexander Pope notes "true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the same thing" (ASA, p 181.) We look at th...

In this episode we tackle the concept of the social imaginary, the believable reality held by a people. Understanding what a social imaginary is, and how it's held in place through things such as stories, images, law, and collective action, we are positioned for intentional response. We highlight three areas of response that can be useful for missionaries: compassion for understanding someone...

A jam-packed episode this week exploring the shift in moral order. We take a look at the shift away from three levels of pre-modern morality: Form- the notion that there is a pre-existing ideal self for us to pursue Function- all people are part of the higher hierarchy, and find identity through the function they play in the wider sphere of society Goal- people work together towards the higher goa...

In this episode we begin Chapter 4, Modern Social Imaginaries. We take a look at the transformation of Natural Law from a theory of the philosophical elite to a functional structure that carries western civilisation from a pre-modern to a modern social imaginary. As Natural Law created space for secular moral discussion, we propose a few tools that can be useful for us in this space today. i) plan...

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 v...

How did a world where the immanent and transcendent were intricately woven come to bequeath us a world where it is possible to live in a closed world where communication between the natural and supernatural is largely foreign and unexpected? As Taylor says “Many people are happy living for goals which are purely immanent. They live in a way that takes no account of the transcendent” (p. 143). In t...

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...

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...

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 "religi...

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...

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 s...

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 devel...

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 wh...

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 ti...

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...

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...

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 a...

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 rai...

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 unbeli...

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 conver...

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 th...

The run down of what's coming and why we'd love you to jump on board and join the conversation! https://sites.google.com/view/contemplatingculture/home