Summary
Miroslav Volf explains the senses in which Christian faith encourages or opposes secularisation.
Transcript
Well, secularism is a complicated term, right. Secularism might mean the kind of emptying of the political space of any signs of religion. Secularism might mean worldview secularism, with implicit denial of the existence of God and claim of God upon our lives. It can be understood as kind of separation or distinction between church and state, in that sense that state or a public space is kind of a secular space, or as religion or Christian faith becomes a sacred space. And depending on which one you take of these, Christian faith has either contributed to secularism or stands in strict opposition to it.
I think it’s true that Christian faith – I think also some other world religions – have this secularising tendency, in the sense that they break the unity between religion and the kind of natural order and also the state and culture. That kind of is a secularising force. At the same time, I think it will be difficult to say that Christian faith at whose heart is God incarnate, namely Jesus Christ, coming and taking upon himself human flesh, is secularising. It’s a sacralising, if you want, in that sense. It shows you that the entirety of creation is capable of the relationship with God – indeed, that the entirety of creation is a gift of God to us, and has been created in such a way that unity between God and created order can be possible.
