Dear Friends,
At the theology conference I attended last week, I entered into a fascinating conversation with a couple of other attendees concerning what the scholar Charles Taylor calls a “false narrative of subtraction.” Taylor says that today’s Christians have a tendency to view the world through the image of subtraction. We see our contemporary experience as one where people have lost moral commitment, dropped prayer in schools, declined in church attendance, abandoned the environment, no longer respect others or life itself. People are heard to say that because of all these “subtractions”, our spiritual ailments have grown. Faith has been subtracted from our cultural and societal lives. Such was certainly the feeling of many people at this conference; their experience reflected the difficulty in bringing up matters of faith in the very secular world of publishing, film, music and art.
Taylor, in contrast, argues it is not “subtraction” that has happened to our faith lives, but that we have entered an entirely different age of “authenticity” where belief is simply one system among many that is contested. It is not just faith that is challenged, but all our value systems. Which is why many people feel the political systems are collapsing or the way they feel at work no longer provides value or the entertainment world leaves them bored. What has happened is that our world has become very full of choices. We evaluate everything on its worth and seek to find our “authentic” way in the world. Marriage, God, and morality are just concepts that serve the path or block the path to personal authenticity.
In this new age, God is simply an idea. To think that God is a force apart from my own personal spirituality has become unbelievable for many people. That God exists apart from our natural and material world, that God transcends our human condition, that God places demands on our lives – seems odd at best to many people. All that has been added in our age, has, in turn, blocked out the possibility of a transcendent God who is anything more than a personal idea or concept. People today still seek transcendence but it happens through nature, drugs, meditation, or life-risking physical challenges (mountain climbing, parachute jumping, etc.).
Taylor’s point is that the many additions of the last five hundred years have blocked the doorway that once widely welcomed people into the experience of God. It has not been taken away, but it has become so full that it is hard to find God in the midst of it all. The door has not been subtracted or removed, but has been blocked by a pile of additions. Taylor wrote a very long book explaining the journey that brought us to this point and the many things that now block the way to God.
For example, the beautiful cathedrals of Europe used to bring people to a feeling of transcendence. Their beauty and wonder would bring people to stand in awe and they would truly feel the power of God when they entered those buildings. Now, a Cathedral may still be holy, but we would say it is just the sum of ordinary things – bricks, glass, wood…rarely, would a parent today tell their children that in this glorious building God and human beings commune, that the sacred and the human meet, that earth and heaven touch in this sacred space. Rather, they would talk about its beauty, its history, or its meaning to a group of local people who pray there. The building is special because human minds find it aesthetically pleasing.
The question for our small group at the conference was how in the midst of a cluttered world, do we help people discover the wonder of God? How do we stop moaning about what we believe others have taken away from us and help people encounter the reality of God not just as an idea, but as a transcendent power. A power that created the universe and holds it in being. A power that surrendered itself for our salvation. How can we help people start engaging Jesus again? Perhaps the question goes to each of us first, “Is Jesus a reality in our life?” Is being a disciple of Jesus deeper than simply membership in a group? Is it a transformation through the sharing of personhood? Do we truly feel one with Jesus Christ? Once we become one with Jesus, then people will encounter in us a profound power. A power that takes us beyond the clutter of this world into the wonder of the divine.
Peace,
Fr. Damian