Defining Secular

[poliphilo]

A secular society separates Church and State. It's a society in which the priests don't get to make the rules. That is all. Secular does not mean atheistical or irreligious or anti-clerical.  Religion flourishes in the western democracies- all of which are essentially secular. The USA- one of the most religious societies on earth- has a secular constitution. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good point. National churches- like the dear old Church of England- tend to be smug, complacent and boring.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

I dislike the Church of England, or maybe just Rowan Williams. The notion of making Christianity a viable alternative to unbelief through academe is grating. I think intelligent people are looking for a sense of community, meaning and a font of "classical values" in a society awash in narrow self-interest.

Even in America, Christianity is fading amongst the educated, even as it becomes the self-help solution for the poor. What's funny is that there is a resurgence in Judaism, driven by a desire to recapture culture. I think that, for thinking people, the salvation of Christianity would lie in its rituals and traditions but I think the clergy, being too old to understand this, remain convinced that they should "modernize".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I agree; modernization doesn't work. I lived through a period when the Church of England ditched its old scriptures and rituals for updated versions in flat "modern" English- and lost people in droves. Mind you, it would almost certainly have lost them anyway.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

When was that?