Fr Ignace DHert, op Fundamental theology

Chapter 2
A complex situation

Contents
CHAPTER 2 A COMPLEX SITUATION ........................................................................................................ 1
1. THE PRE-MODERN CULTURE ........................................................................................................................................ 3
2. THE SECULAR (MODERN) CULTURE ........................................................................................................................... 4
3. THE POST MODERN, SECULARISED CULTURE ............................................................................................................ 6

We appear to be living in a very complex situation, where various cultures

are present simultaneously. Together they make up our present scene. That is
also true for religious and ecclesiastical life: various cultures are present
simultaneously. We try to present a survey of the main cultures which are still
to be felt in a lot of liturgical and ecclesiastical texts and expressions.

To start: we are going through a crisis.

Crisis is derived from the Greek verb krinein which means: to make a
choice. To go through a phase where we feel that a particular period of our life
has come to an end, and we hear the call for something new. A new beginning.

In ones personal life, everybody goes through such a crisis various times:
The crisis of the pubescent, the adolescent, the middle-age, the retirement, etc
People have to leave a world behind, they have to enter a new phase. But this is
not a comfortable situation. Certainties which were valid in the past, are no
longer so in this new situation. That is the very human condition without:
without letting go, a new birth is not possible. If there is no breaking out, there
can be no new beginning. If a baby is not released cut free - from his mother,
there can be no human life.

The same holds true on the collective level. When people start losing their
belief in the convictions which sustained their (religious) culture, they feel that
the old world has passed away and that something new must be brought about.

J.H. Newman introduced the notion of first principles, to indicate the

unquestioned evidences which constitute the very basis of a particular culture.
These cannot be proved, because they function themselves as evidence-material.

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They constitute the very basis of a culture. When these principles are no longer
experienced in this way, we call this situation a cultural crisis.

So, this is the question which is at stake today too: do we have common
ground on which we stand to elaborate a culture which is shared by all or at least
by the great majority of the people?

With culture we mean:

- a general atmosphere: this is something everybody understands, yet which

is very difficult to define. E.g. there was a general feeling after world war
II which was felt among most people in western Europe. We had to
rebuild our world. We appreciated the value of material things. Of food.
The sense of belonging to a particular social class was very strong. When
you belong to the working class, you are not supposed to apply for
university studies even though you are a good student and the community
provides the necessary financial means to attend university. The standard
of living is an important element to indicate the general atmosphere: how
we feed ourselves, what we can buy, where we travel to etcthe
technological means we have at our disposal,

- a vision concerning man and world: the patterns of behaviour which man
and woman commonly divide between them, the new situation which has
been created through the fact that families are made up of two salaries,
children are left to look after themselves much more than was the case
before, How does our world look like? Do we believe to have been
created by God, or is our existence just a coincidence, a chance of fate,
are we merely a product of that huge process of evolution? How make
sense of a god-creator?

- a set of values and norms: these follow from the above said. Depending
on how we look at social reality we will find docility and submission a
value or on the contrary something revolting. If we support the idea that
man and woman deserve the same development, both intellectually and
socially, we will find it normal that both sexes should be given equal
rights in their social contacts and building up a career. In many cultures
this vision will collide with a more traditional view on the functions
which are believed to be typically male or female. If we believe that all
authority comes from God, than all hierarchical structure is to be
respected and obeyed. If on the contrary we believe that all human beings
are called to live together as brothers and sisters, we will be inclined to

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adopt more democratic attitude and promote those who have been less
fortunate.

What different types of culture can we discern in the present ecclesiastical

situation?

1. The pre-modern culture

The basic atmosphere has to an important extent to do with the
limitations which are typical for the human condition: The world in which we
live is far too complex that we should be able to understand how things hold
together, that we should be able to grasp the meaning of life. There are so many
things which are beyond are intellectual reach. We cannot master it
intellectually.
It is also a world in which we feel powerless: there is not much we can do
against epidemics, natural disasters, diseases, war, or cancer.
Human beings are limited in what they know and what they can do.

Fortunately, we may trust that there is a world out there, high above the
sky, where God is taking watch over us, together with the saints and the angels.
To Him we can send our prayers, we can confide in his plan with creation and
with history. We also ask him to intervene down here from up there, to put an
end to sickness and to reconcile people with each other.

God is mans trust and stronghold, the rock on which he rests, his
trustworthy shelter.

God knows why things happen the way they do. Even though we are
overcome with so many riddles and mysteries, even though reason breaks down,
we may believe that everything is in Gods hand. That is why you can always
call on him. He has the power to alter situations, to heal the sick and raise the
dead. To make it rain and make the sun shine just the way it suits him.

God is mans shelter. This is an essential key for his understanding of life
and of the world. God is mans comfort. There is this profound feeling of safety
which is typical for this culture. No matter how desperate situations may seem,
no matter how hopeless, there is always God with whom one can find comfort
and rest.

It follows that the world which we find as something given in advance is

all right. It springs from God.

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Therefore, reality as such is holy. It is the expression of Gods will. Therefore

too, it should be respected as such. Interventions are not allowed. Neither in the
natural nor in the social order. (until the beginning of the 19th century, social
classes were considered as being the will of God)

Hence the relativity of this earthly existence. Human beings only find
their final destination with God: up there and after this life.

All authority comes from God. Since the whole cosmos is hierarchically
structured, this hierarchy is absolute. The pope is always right, and the king
always speaks the truth. The authority counts as the validation of the expression.

God is thought of in terms of human experience, yet in the superlative: he

is omniscient, omnipotent, he sees and knows all things.

Do we recognise certain attitudes in ecclesiastical milieus which belong to this

pre-modern culture? Certain ways of behaving? Certain values which are
unquestioned?
Can we see how this theology has influenced the liturgy, the language of prayer,
the meaning of the sacraments?

2. The secular (modern) culture

From the 12-13th century onwards: a whole series of evolutions which sustain
each other.

1. To be noticed in the first place is the social change: the rise of a new
social reality: the bourgeois class. At the foot of the castle (Au pied du
bourg : hence bourg-eois). Between the clergy and the nobility on the
one hand and the slaves on the other, a new class emerges. The
independent class of craftsmen and tradesmen. The rise of the cities, the
guilds, etc. will end up in the bourgeois culture of the 19th century.
Autonomy becomes a key-word to qualify this new social reality instead
of sheer dependence.

2. Along with it goes an economic evolution: money becomes important.

Money is powerful. It seems to produce more money of its own. People
have to think about the difficult problem of money-interest. It is no longer
the land one owns which is the sole criterion for ones possessions and
wealth. Money becomes the new measure. Services are settled by paying
money. We are taking first steps into a capitalist world. Personal
relationships are replaced by more business like arrangements.

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3. This new situation entails a new cultural feeling. The bourgeois becomes
the reference figure. He embodies the values and the ideal in this new
culture. Freedom is one of the most important values. To live without
boundaries. The bourgeois wants to be the sole author of his life. He will
not allow anybody else to restrain his freedom.

4. Perhaps most important, generally speaking, is the scientific evolution.

From the 15th century onwards, we are engaged in a process of growing
rational maturity. With the instruments we devise and the experiments we
carry out, a whole new approach is inaugurated. The other world up there
is no longer the explanation for thunder and lightning: we have found
more plausible explanations. We no longer feel the need to bring in God
to explain the things that happen. We are able ourselves to explore our
reality. It means that the whole atmosphere is profoundly changed when
compared with that of the pre-modern culture. God is shifted aside and his
function is reduced to that of a scientific hypothesis. Only a rest-function
remains. The unsolved problem of beginning and end. Someone must be
responsible for the first move and somehow there must come an end to
this whole enterprise. For the rest, we are left to ourselves.

Reality is no longer experienced as a riddle! Humans beings have the

capability of exploring and understanding reality.
God becomes less useful. He loses the functions he fulfilled in the pre-modern
culture. The outcome of this history is our responsibility. We are the authors of
this history. There is no divine plan hidden up there above the sky by which we
are guided.

God is no longer used as an Ersatz, as additional knowledge when we are

short of a solution. It is a positive thing that He is no longer used as a Deus ex
machina, someone who fills the gaps of our understanding. Human beings feel
the challenge to explore this reality on their account and to master it with their
own means.
Responsibility and creativity are the main values.

It serves to the effect that gradually human reason takes the place which
before was reserved to God. The negative effect is that the sense of any
transcendent reality gets lost, the wonder is gone. We analyse reality in purely
rational terms and we organise it merely functionally. And the result is an
ecological disaster, exploitation of the raw materials, increasing capitalism
world-wide, a new economic order, etc.

The 19th century may serve as a typical example of the result of these
various evolutions.

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We mean the period between two main revolutions: 1789 and 1917.

Where do we find elements of this culture in our religious environment today?

How important do we find rational argument in the context of theological
reflection?

3. The post modern, secularised culture

Since the beginning of the sixties we are confronted with the end of the
homogeneous Christian culture.
Till that time we were living in a basically Christian culture. Society was held
together by Christian values and principles, decreed by an unquestioned
ecclesiastical authority. The church has had the opportunity to establish her
position all over the place. Even the tiniest places had their parish church and a
vicar.
It was a homogeneous world. We were taught the same things and trained
to practice the same values, whether at home, at school, in the youth movement.
Our freedom to choose was small, the norms however were crystal clear.
Uncertainty and doubt were totally absent from that world. We knew exactly
what we had to do and how to behave.

This culture has fallen apart. The world has split up. The homogeneous
world no longer exists. It has become fragmented into a variety of different
small worlds without any connection between them. Each world has its own
values, criteria, code of behaviour, etc. People live only partly at home, partly at
the university, partly they belong to a student club, partly they are a member of
a sporting club, etc. Yet there is no longer any connection between these
different worlds. They have to meet different expectations, adapt according to
different modes of behaviour, practice different values, depending on the social
context.

The same holds true for their religious life. If people still commit
themselves to a religious community, they do so out of their own free choice.
But there is no longer the same sense of belonging to a group where people
share (an important part of) their life with each other. Socially speaking
however, the network which was provided by al kinds of ecclesiastical
initiatives has fallen apart. People inhabit different worlds. It means that they
have to construct their own personality. It is no longer given in advance.

This has become even more difficult since there exists no longer any
consensus about a meaningful behaviour in important areas of human life:
whether we talk about relationships, religious convictions, human labour. We

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have reached a situation where there is only the variety, the ever growing range
of possibilities. Quantity is growing unceasingly. Yet we lack the criteria to go
with.
Take e.g. relationships. There used to be a unique model which was
accepted by everyone. Either you get married or you choose a celibate state.
That is the choice you make. A choice to which you stick for the rest of your
life. Whether you are a happy person is not so important. It is clear that the
social scene had drastically changed. Divorce has been accepted, LAT, SMER,
homosexual relationships have been accepted and got a status of respectability.
In some countries the discussion has started concerning the right for homosexual
people to adopt children as their own.
Religious life. There used to be one unique form of life if you wanted to
be a practising believer: you went to church. The Christian community has
become one of the many possibilities you can choose. There is e.g. the whole
range of New Age possibilities. Some people feel more attracted by eastern
forms of religious life. Other people combine various religions into a new kind
of synthesis.

That means that the context in which people make choices has changed.
Freedom has got a new context. More than it is felt to be a goal to put into
practice, it has become a burden. There is in many cases an overwhelming
quantity of items between which one has to choose, yet there are no rules of
norms which can guide people in their choice. Why choose one thing over
another? There is no social stimulant inciting to make one choice rather than the
other. And so, people tend to avoid choices, to postpone them. They commit
themselves conditionally, provisionally, as long as they feel happy. Personal
well being has become the main criterion by which they allow themselves to be
guided. Physical and mental well being.

This surely has an impact on human consciousness. People feel no longer

restricted to just one particular world, or to one single culture. They wonder
around, taking part in various cultures, either successively or simultaneously.
They pick up elements from different cultures, combining them into a new
synthesis, the way they like it and for the time being. They tend not to identify
any longer with the movement, the union, the church, the traditional
form of religious life. It would not be fair to interpret this attitude as
indifference. It is rather the way they commit themselves which has drastically
changed, as a result of a whole new atmosphere.

It will not surprise then that the self has become a central theme. The
whole vocabulary has shifted considerably. In earlier days charity was put
forward as a central value, and the whole spiritual language game was full with
notions such as self denial, self sacrifice, self discipline. Now we are moving

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into a new atmosphere where we hear of self-expression, self-development, self-

acceptance, self-love, etc.

Finally, the religious belonging has changed. No unconditional surrender

any more. No complete identification. After all, even within the roman catholic
church, we are faced with a great variety of different interpretations, different
kinds of spirituality. Moreover, people want to learn from other religions as
well. Syncretism is natural. It appears that for certain people it is perfectly all
right to call oneself a Christian believer and prefer reincarnation to the
resurrection of the body e.g.

Do we recognise some of the elements mentioned in this post-modern culture?

Do we feel at home in this situation? Is there not a danger in this religion the
way I like it?

In the following chapter we want to focus on the more recent

developments which have led up to our present situation.

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