Faith and Modernity

Lecture 2Religious Responses to Modernity

Current IoE Survey – published in an 2015 (9000 espondents)

• 25% of Britons think religion is a force for good in society (some believers included in this category

• 60% of women and 35% of men believed there was a life after death

• 54% of men and 34% of women claimed to be agnostic or atheist

• No doubts experienced – 16% Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterian and URC; 33% Roman Catholics; 71% Evangelicals; 88% Muslims

ITN Poll

• 24% think religion is a force for good in the world

• 39% think Christianity is a force for good in the world.

Religion and Reason

• Salman Rushdie – ‘Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weapons, becomes a real threat to our freedoms’

• John McDade (theologian) – ‘I stand with Rushdie in disbelief at what is done in the name of belief, but if there is a way forward it can only be by strengthening the bond between religion and reason, not by consigning religion to the category of unreason and locking religious believers inside an imaginary castle of nonsense’ The Tablet 24/1/15

In contrast to the expectations and processes outlined in Lecture 1 the last two hundred years could be seen as a time of religious ferment around the world. A number of initial points were raised: 1. Was religion so deep before ‘secularization’ and, following Callum Brown on

Britain, was secularization a fairly recent process (mainly post-1945)? 2. Religions are still the largest human organisations. 3. Bitter religious struggles still exist around the globe – Northern Ireland; Middle

East; Indian subcontinent; Muslim fundamentalism etc. 4. The rise of many religious sects and New Agers 5. Religion still has significant prestige (e.g. Coventry Cathedral) 6. Many scientists are also believers (New creationists referred to in passing – if

interested see Frederick Crews ‘Saving us From Darwin’, in New York Review of Books October 4 2001 pp.24-27 and also in subsequent issue. 18 October 2001 pp.51 – 55.)

7. The most ‘modern’ society in the world, the United States, is still profoundly religious.

Religious Responses to Modernity

1 Religious ferment since the Enlightenment; some examples 2 Religious resistance to modernity (Fundamentalism) 3 Religious adaptation to modernity 4 Some thoughts on Coventry Cathedral

1 Religious ferment since the Enlightenment; some examples

John Wesley; Joanna Southcott; MuggletoniansJoseph Smith; Mormons Miracles and apparitionsLourdes (1858); Bernadette Soubirous[www.lourdes-france.org] Fatima, Portugal (1917) Medjugorje, Bosnia (1981- present)[www.medjugorje.org]

Sites of Pilgrimage

Taizé, France [www.taize.fr]Mecca – HajKumbh Mela Festival [www.hindu.org] http://news.sky.com/story/1043420/kumbh-mela-millions-gather-for-hindu-festival

Recent Cultic Activity: A Challenge to Enlightenment Values1960s ‘New Age’ of Aquarius – hippy inspirationBeatles – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Transcendental Meditation 1968/9 Charles Manson – ‘Manson Family’ – Pacific Palisades – Spahn Movie Ranch – Murders at 10050 Cielo Drive – Film star

Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanskii) and others 1978 Jim Jones – People’s Temple, San Francisco – mass suicide of 900 members in Jonestown, Guyana 18/11/1978 1997 Heaven’s Gate Cult San DiegoMarch 24/5/6 39 suicides (18 men 21 women) to release their souls to join a UFO concealed behind Hale-Bopp comet Among first to utilize web for cultic ends, based on astrology. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) 1931-901970s based in Pune, IndiaEventually 300,000 visitors per year to stay in the ashram.Mixture of therapy, encounter groups, violence and sex 1981-5 moves to Oregon, takes over town of Antelope renames it Rajneeshpuram, home to thousands of, mostly Anglo-Saxon,

western followers known as Sanyassin. Explosion between local community and the newcomers – shootings, bioterrorism (contaminating local salad bars with salmonella, 750 reported ill)

Movement of escapism, immediacy of living life to the full. (quotes) Bhagwan blessed by his grateful followers with no less than 93 Rolls Royces

Religious resistance to modernity (Fundamentalism)

Pope Pius IX Syllabus of Errors (1864)Doctrine of Papal Infallibility (1871) Vatican Council Action FrançaiseLe PenArchbishop Lefebre Lateran Accords (1929) Kulturkampf (Prussia 1871-1878) Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum (1891)Christian Democracyprimacy of the spiritualopposition to all materialisms (capitalism/liberalism/socialism/ communism/rationalism)concern for material welfare of poor and oppressedresponsibilities of property holding (stewardship) as well as rights

Protestant FundamentalismProtestant resistance more tied up with anti-Darwinism Scopes trial 1925 – Clarence Darrow; William Jennings Bryan (later U.S. Secretary of State)

to contemporary creationists and ‘Intelligent Design’ 1920 ‘those ready to do battle for the Fundamentals of Protestantism’ – Baptist newspaper. 1910 Presbyterian Definition of FundamentalismBiblical inerrancyVirgin Birth of JesusJesus died to redeem humanity from sinBodily resurrection of JesusAuthenticity of miracles

Fundamentalism in the Middle EastShari’a lawFatwasJihad 1977 Fall of Israeli Labour Party1979 overthrow of Shah of Iran replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini

1979 election of President Reagan1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - US funds militants in Peshawar including one Osama bin Laden Islamic modernisersKemal Ataturk (Turkey 1920s)Nasser (Egypt 1950s) Anti-imperialist religious rebellionsShamil (Caucasus 1850s)Mahdi (Sudan 1890s)Indian Mutiny (1857)Tai’ping (1860s) and Boxer (1900-1) rebellions in ChinaAmritsar massacre (1919)

Adaptation

From Biblical literalism to Bible analysis

Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) Christian Palaeontology

Pope John XXIII and Vatican II (early 1960s)

Death of God theology – from transcendence to

immanence

Liberation Theology

Some thoughts on Coventry Cathedral

Finally a few points about Coventry Cathedral notably 1. Its inconspicuous location; (argument over its

reconstruction)2. Its iconic status, along with the ruins, as a centre of

peace and reconciliation 3. Its modernity of materials –glass screen; the tapestry

design; light and airy interior; the Epstein bronze of St Michael and the Dragon combined with

4. A very traditional, neo-gothic feel – long, high nave, traditional shape.

Who lives in a house like this?

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