There are those delicious but rare occasions when sinful temptation prevails and you can revel in saying , “I told you so!”. In a welcome respite from my pandemic funk, a post by Fr Stephen Freeman offered me that opportunity, the subject of this post.
Fr, Stephen Freeman’s post is entitled “What a Caveman Said:To Perceive That Which is Eternal” . I recommend reading in its entirety.
My “I told you so” moment came with his opening sentence.
Fr. Alexander Schmemann described “secularism” as the greatest heresy of our time.
I was immediately reminded of the assertion I made in posts on disenchantment.
Living in a disenchanted age is the most significant challenge we face in seeking a relationship with God. BINGO!
(You can read the posts HERE)
I must pause at this point, it has dawned on me how much I detest it when someone tells me “I told you so”. Particularly when they were right and I was wrong. Perhaps I’ve already turned you off with my admitted sinful lapse. Please forgive me. In a spirit of repentance, the title of the second section of this post is: “Fr Schmemann is right…secularism is the greatest heresy of our time.”
For Christians, secularism is mostly viewed as a sinister force (they/them), attacking Christianity, evidenced in the political and cultural arena,,,loss of religious freedom…removal of prayer from school…legalization of abortion… same sex marriage…loss of family values… normalization of homosexuality, et al. Reality is, all those things, and more, are occurring in our society. Threatening as they are, they are just symptoms of secularism. Secularism is a modern day Hydra, a multi-headed monster, which when one head is severed, two replace it. Only when its one immortal head is severed will it be defeated. The immortal head of secularism is a belief. We must understand that reality and realize our battles against symptoms of secularism will never yield victory. Power and legislation will not overcome belief. Even if we succeed in eliminating symptoms we will not have defeated secularism. The problem is greater than “them/they”.
Disenchantment is symptomatic of secularism. …Secularism is the belief that the world exists independent of God, that its meaning and use are defined by human beings. Things are merely things.
Disenchantment as described by Charles Taylor is: “…day to day life… emptied of deeper resonance, is dry, flat; the things which surround us are dead, ugly, empty; and the way we organize them, shape them, in order to live has not meaning, beauty, depth, sense.” We now experience “a terrible flatness in the everyday.” Life in a secular culture where God is irrelevant , is disenchanted.
Fr. Freeman echos Taylor’s sentiments on disenchantment:
Our disenchanted, secular world is a siren song that promises the power of control while robbing us of the reality of communion. We “manage” the world when we should be in love with it.
The essence of disenchantment is the absence of transcendence, most apparent in the absence of God. Without the divine, life loses its meaning and purpose. The only remaining option for meaning and purpose in a secular age comes from within, each individual becomes their own god.
It is easy for me to see the prevalence of secularism. What is most difficult is to see it within myself. Fr. Freeman’s post is helpful in two ways.
First, he points out heresy, by definition, is a false teaching from within Christian faith. Calling secularism a heresy has serious implications, secularism is not a “them” problem it is also a Christian problem… heresy.
Second…notions of secularism have been in the ascendancy for well over 200 years. They have found their way into the bedrock understanding of most Christians, … It is a largely unrecognized heresy in that it appears to be a “non-religious” point of view, being outside the realm of theology. For modern people, it is simply thought to be “the way things are.”
If secularism in not just a “non-religious’ point of view, what does secularism look like from a “religious’ point of view”?
Fr Freeman is helpful answering that question and I encourage you to read his thoughts carefully. For this post, I am pondering what secularism from a “religious” view point looks like in my life.
Secularism is a rejection of transcendence. Belief in God inherently contradicts secularism. I am a Christ follower. I do not hold the secular belief that “the world exists independent of God“. How, then, can secularism find a foothold in my life?
Secularism utilizes diversionary tactics to assault Christian strongholds. When faced with frontal assaults against religious liberty and values I want to resort to weapons of power and violence. When confronted with personal sin I turn to sin management, grasping my boot straps. Committing my energy and resources to those battles, I become vulnerable. With my spiritual immune system compromised, secularism, like invisible coronavirus, finds residence in my heart and mind and threatens my spiritual core.
Unfortunately, I have a “pre-existing spiritual condition” which makes me especially vulnerable. Raised in a a religious tradition shaped by logic and rationality of enlightenment thinking, my mind is fertile ground for secularism.
Secularism embeds itself in the realm of transcendence, especially:
> Holy Spirit
> Prayer
> Eucharist
> Divine presence
> Miracles
As transcendence is diminished, my religion becomes a commodity in a quest for meaning and purpose.
What I am describing about my faith is not an either/or proposition. While I recognize the presence of secularism and its influence on my life, I remain confident in the saving grace of God through Christ. What is at risk is not salvation, but life. Without the transcendent reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and God’s abiding presence, there will no life as Jesus promised in the Kingdom of God.
My life is good but there is more. There is music in an disenchanted life, but never the full symphony. As I’ve grown older and deepened in my relationship with God, there are occasions when I hear enchanting music, sweet as it is, it is but one movement. Secularism denies the full symphonic expression of the Kingdom of God. Fr. Freeman describes it this way:
We are captivated by the “surface” of things, failing to see what lies beneath. It causes us to be anxious and driven by things of insignificance. If there is a constant temptation for us in our present time, it is to lose confidence that there is anything unseen or eternal, at least in the sense that such things impinge on our daily existence.
It seems as though I have been out flanked. On the one hand, there is the reality of frontal attacks. As I have learned, sin management is not sufficient to resist fleshly sin. On the other hand, I am faced with relentless chipping away of belief in transcendent reality. I have good company:
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25
Secularism (disenchantment) is debilitating for a Christ follower. Life is deprived of spiritual vitality. Sin management is futile.
The answer to secularism, … is not to be found in attacking it. Rather, it is best seen by presenting what is true and real –
“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.(2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
The antidote and ultimate vaccine for secularism is unseen reality. As I become increasingly aware of the influence of disenchantment, engaging unseen reality …”what is true and real” is crucial. In posts to follow I will share my developing understanding of what engaging unseen reality means in my daily walk.
When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood … Ps 73
Still on the journey