20AR25-09

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AR 25:9 - The "secularization hypothesis," dead or alive?

In this issue:

ASTROLOGY - how it's gone off-kilter

SECULARISM - has the rise of modernity been accompanied by the decline of religion?

+ has Christianity in Europe become a purely cultural force?

Apologia Report 25:9 (1,466)

March 4, 2020

ASTROLOGY

"You're a Scorpio?" by Jo Craven McGinty -- Reality check: "As the planet spins on its axis, it teeters back and forth like a child's top, and after millennia of staggering along its path around the sun, it no longer aligns with the constellations of the zodiac on the dates that were established in ancient times. ...

"Today, Polaris, which is sometimes called the North Star, is located at the tip of the Little Dipper's handle and is the Earth's polestar. A few thousand years from now, Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, will occupy that position.

"About 2,000 years ago, the dates were correct" says Dr. James B. Kaler, professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "In another 24,000 years, they will be correct again."

"But today, the sun appears to pass through the constellations around one month later than what is recorded in horoscopes. ...

"So, while an astrologer might tell me that I am a tenacious, loyal, persuasive Cancer, the position of the Earth at the time of my birth suggests that I am actually a gentle, affectionate, curious Gemini." Wall Street Journal, Feb 21 '20 <www.https://on.wsj.com/2welT8s>

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SECULARISM

"The Collapse of the Secularization Hypothesis" by Gene Edward Veith Jr. -- in which Veith casts doubt on the assumption that "the rise of modernity will be accompanied by the decline of religion. ...

"As societies have grown more modern, they have not become less religious. In fact, religion has often proven to be a modernizing influence." Veith uses Christianity in Africa as an example.

He also notes that "secularism itself, where it does occur, is not the extinction of religion. Sociologist of religion Christian Smith marshals the research on secularism in his book Religion: What It Is, Why It Works, and Why It Matters [1]." In the book, Smith says that "sometimes [secularism] is not so much the absence of religion, ... but a change in the religion." For example, "Scandinavian values such as benevolence and generosity to the disadvantaged are very different from those of its pre-Christian Viking heritage, with its violent warrior culture, and can be traced directly to the continuing Christian influence. ...

"Another important study of secularism is by the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, A Secular Age [2]." He writes that "the problem of secularism, which affects believers and unbelievers alike, is not the absence of religion but the abundance of religions. ... [T]he contemporary secular West has no single religion - unlike the Catholic Middle Ages and the Islamic Middle East today - but rather a plethora of alternatives from which we must choose.... Taylor shows that even the different strains of unbelief had their origins in religion. And he explores the religious commitments and struggles that today's nonbelieving secularists and their predecessors have been engaged in.

"Smith and Taylor call to mind the superficiality of today's pop-secularists such as the New Atheists, who think religion is nothing more than incorrect science and that secularism is the triumph of reason over irrationalism, thus demonstrating their ignorance of both religion and secularism." <www.bit.ly/2vq9gHk>

You'll find more on this in Veith's recent book, Post Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture [3], which "analyzes problems with the culture's underlying worldviews and suggests how Christians can offer solutions to current problems as a way to rebuild culture and faith."

Also worth checking out is Veith's "Cranach" blog on Patheos, where he addresses related topics such as "Have the 'Nones' Stopped Growing?" <www.bit.ly/2PIXwH7>

In contrast to the above, Richard Ostling reviews Is Europe Christian? by Olivier Roy [4]. It sure seems that secularization has had a major impact on Europe. According to Ostling, in a 2018 report "substantial majorities of young adults in Belgium, France, Hungary and Spain say they never pray. In Eastern Europe's Czech Republic, non-praying people reach 80 percent, showing the failed Communist regime had one lasting achievement, gravely wounding the nation's churches through persistent oppression." Ostling provides "a rough summation of some key observations from Roy. ...

"Mainline - liberal Protestantism in particular - has created 'the triumph of self-secularization' by churches. Conservative Protestant evangelicalism, imported by outsiders, seeks converts and has little interest in the cultural struggle. ...

"A significant minority group of Muslim immigrants has plunged into this complex 'crisis in European culture.' As a result, populism has merged with 'Christian identity' instincts that exploit religious nostalgia and symbols to rally wariness or hostility toward Muslim newcomers while doing nothing to rehabilitate Christianity as a living religion. Rather, the rising right-wing populism is not interested in the authentic faith of actual churches, and in some ways is its sworn enemy.

"In politics and law, 'the urge to limit the role of Islam amounts to reducing the religious sphere in general.' Use of 'Christian identity as a means to counter the rise of Islam results in the increased secularization of Christianity.' Secularists have shifted into 'identity politics' and thereby help 'undo the link between Europe and Christianity.'" patheos.com, Feb 14 '20, <www.bit.ly/385hstW>

The promo for the book reads in part: "Rather than repeating the familiar narrative of decline, Roy challenges the significance of secularized Western nations' reduction of Christianity to a purely cultural force - relegated to issues such as abortion, euthanasia and equal marriage. He illustrates that, globally, quite the opposite has occurred: Christianity is now universalized, and detached from national identity. Not only has it taken hold in the Global South, generally in a more socially conservative form than in the West, but it has also 'returned' to Europe, following immigration from former colonies."

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Religion: What It Is, Why It Works, and Why It Matters, by Christian Smith (Princeton Univ Prs, 2019, paperback, 296 pages) <www.amzn.to/2uBQYCN>

2 - A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor (Harvard Univ Prs, 2018, paperback, 896 pages) <www.amzn.to/395AO3n>

3 - Post Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, by Gene Edward Veith Jr. (Crossway, 2020, paperback, 320 pages) <www.amzn.to/2Tm8WBx>

4 - Is Europe Christian? by Olivier Roy (Oxford Univ Prs, 2020, hardcover: 112 pages) <www.amzn.to/2T5FZuN>

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