What it means to be living in a secular society

Andy Root TLDR

This is the third in a short series of Andy Root inspired posts.

Much of Root’s thinking is influenced by the philosopher Charles Taylor. Building off Taylor, Root speaks of 3 phases of secularism that have shaped our modern American culture.

Phase 1: The public/private separate spheres of religion. Root gives the example of the separation of church and state in the United States. In modern culture, its fine for one to be religious, but one must practice one’s religion privately, without it seeping into the public sphere.

Phase 2: The decline of participation in religious institutions. This is obvious, and has been happening since around the 1960’s.

Secular 3: The loss of transcendence. Working from Taylor, Root talks about a move by society to an imminent or closed frame, meaning, our world is a “closed system” essentially, God does not act or intervene.

In The Congregation in a Secular Age, Root points out how one of the moves by churches and religious institutions to address Phase 2 has been what he calls a" “speeding up” to keep up with society. Churches try this speed via seeking relevance (think Evangelicals) or by ongoing social justice outreach efforts (think Mainline/Liberal churches). Root’s primary critique is that these efforts wear out pastors and church members while also deepening the crisis of Phase 3: the loss of transcendence.

In short, pastors and church members are so busy trying to be relevant, they lose time and connection to the divine, exacerbating the biggest problem facing Christianity in our current time.

“If a congregation wants change, it will start not by being concerned with relevance and resources, but with the good life of resonance, seeking for living Christ where Christ can be found, where time is not made to accelerate but becomes full and sacred.”¹

1. Root, The Congregation in a Secular Age, 261.