Classical Secularity Versus Liberal Secularism
- sofiapbaker
- Jun 23, 2020
- 1 min read
Some readers may be puzzled to see the term “secularity” in the title of this essay in place of the more familiar term “secularism.” I have two reasons for preferring “secularity.” The first is that “secular-ism” is one of those nineteenth-century “isms” that emerge from a fundamentally Hegelian understanding of history. It makes use of the Greek –ιζειv suffix, implying a process of becoming, hence it implies “to secularize.” If we were to summon up the full ghostly apparatus of Hegelianism, we might be tempted by its alluring doctrine that to secularize is to modernize and perfect. But regarding as I do the Gospel according to Hegel as extracanonical, I shall resist this temptation.
I shall not be producing a critique of the historical thesis that sees the modern history of the West as a history of secularization, necessary as such a critique is. I will be concerned instead with the question of how to draw the line between the proper sphere of the secular, which I would define in Augustinian terms as the immanent, temporal sphere in which Christians engage with fellow citizens and others who do not share their faith, and the eternal or transcendental sphere which sustains Christians in their faith in this life and calls them back to their divine source…