Faith and Modernity
Lecture 2
Religious 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; Muggletonians
Joseph Smith; Mormons
Miracles and apparitions
Lourdes (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 – Haj
Kumbh Mela Festival [www.hindu.org]
http://news.sky.com/story/1043420/kumbhmela-millions-gather-for-hindu-festival
Recent Cultic Activity: A Challenge to Enlightenment
Values
1960s ‘New Age’ of Aquarius – hippy inspiration
Beatles – 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 Diego
March 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) 1931-90
1970s based in Pune, India
Eventually 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 Française
Le Pen
Archbishop Lefebre
Lateran Accords (1929)
Kulturkampf (Prussia 1871-1878)
Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum (1891)
Christian Democracy
primacy of the spiritual
opposition to all materialisms (capitalism/liberalism/socialism/ communism/rationalism)
concern for material welfare of poor and oppressed
responsibilities of property holding (stewardship) as well as rights
Protestant Fundamentalism
Protestant 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 Fundamentalism
Biblical inerrancy
Virgin Birth of Jesus
Jesus died to redeem humanity from sin
Bodily resurrection of Jesus
Authenticity of miracles
Fundamentalism in the Middle East
Shari’a law
Fatwas
Jihad
1977 Fall of Israeli Labour Party
1979 overthrow of Shah of Iran replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini
1979 election of President Reagan
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - US funds militants in Peshawar including one Osama bin
Laden
Islamic modernisers
Kemal Ataturk (Turkey 1920s)
Nasser (Egypt 1950s)
Anti-imperialist religious rebellions
Shamil (Caucasus 1850s)
Mahdi (Sudan 1890s)
Indian Mutiny (1857)
Tai’ping (1860s) and Boxer (1900-1) rebellions in China
Amritsar 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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