CHESTERTON HOUSE:

A CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDIES

"daring to discuss the important and the amusing"

NEWSLETTER #42

Fall 2011

In December 1999, The Economist published its "millennium issue," including an article entitled "God: After a lengthy career, the Almighty recently passed into history. Or did he?" After a millennium of being on the defensive, the editors wrote that God was very nearly dead, except for the pesky fact that "the corpse just wouldn’t lie down." 

We started Chesterton House that same winter, and some matters did seem rather bleak at the time. Students compartmentalized faith apart from learning. Scholars studied religion primarily as a dependent variable in the lives of believers. And the general giddiness over economic growth further seemed to render religious faith relatively useless. 

Not everything about the spiritual landscape has changed over the last decade, but much has. In a speech given one month after 9/11, philosopher Jurgen Habermas called the West a "post-secular" society. "That the world has become postsecular," Peter Steinfels wrote in the New York Times just one year later, "is now virtually beyond debate" (as evidenced by the loss of the hyphen).  

What exactly "postsecular" means is a matter of considerable discussion. In sociological jargon, secularization entails the "privatization" and institutional "differentiation" of faith--e.g. the separation of church and state (and, in the case of public universities, of church and academy). Postsecularism, by contrast, entails "de-privatization" and "de-differentiation"--i.e., a new intermingling among previously more distinct realms such as religion and politics, religion and health, religion and sport, etc. This "religious turn" is apparent not only in areas such as international relations and film, but also in academic disciplines such as history, philosophy, and literary studies (see, for example, the many professional associations that seek to "integrate" faith and learning within particular disciplines).  

Postsecularism thus entails the return of religion, and even The Economist's editors recently produced a volume entitled God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World (Penguin, 2009). But this return of religion is not a return to the past. What we now witness is neither the displacement of religion by secularism (as predicted by secularization theory) nor the displacement of secularism by religion (as desired by many persons of faith), but rather the rise of religion amidst continual secularization. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Habermas says, the relationship between religion and secularization is not a zero-sum game. 

Sociologist Peter Berger observes that Habermas has experienced a conversion of sorts--not a conversion of faith, but a conversion to the view that Judaism and Christianity are on balance forces for good in the world. In The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion (Ignatius, 2007), Habermas identifies Judaeo-Christianity as a resource for reason, individual rights, egalitarianism, and democracy. Whereas he once regarded religion as useless, now it appears useful.  (See "What Happens when a Leftist Philosopher Discovers God?".)

There are indeed hopeful signs of change. Whether the third millennium will be, as the late Pope John Paul II used to say, "a great springtime for Christianity," we know not. What we do know, as Diane Winston put it in the Chronicle of Higher Education, is that "Like the sexual revolution that swept through campuses beginning in the late 1960s, the current religious revival won't be stopped by clucking tongues and disapproving glances. It won't disappear even if we ignore it. Now, as in the past, young people are exploring new ways of believing and behaving in their search for a richer, more meaningful way of being in the world." The times they are a-changin'.  

The dilemma, of course, is that for religion to be useful, some must also believe it to be true. Our hope is that the postsecular era will take religion more seriously not only with respect to its social utility but also on its own terms. Given that the corpse of the Almighty just won't lie down, rumors of resurrection are as relevant as ever. 

Our next public lecture, to be delivered by Dr. Michael Licona, will in fact be titled "The Historical Case for the Resurrection of Jesus." Please find more information on this and other events and ministry developments below. We are grateful, as always, for your prayers and financial support.

Karl E. Johnson

Director

UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 7:00 pm

"The Historical Case for the Resurrection of Jesus"

Dr. Michael Licona

Graduate Christian Fellowship Roundtable

Room 226, Weill Hall

Friday-Sunday, February 3-5, 2012

Title: TBA

Dr. Steven Garber

Institute of Biblical Studies

Call Auditorium & Bethel Grove Bible Church

Friday, March 30, 2012

A Conversation on Science and Faith

Dr. Roald Hoffmann and Dr. Ian Hutchinson

Veritas Forum

Location: TBA

BEIMFOHR LECTURE

The inaugural Alan and Linda Beimfohr lecture, given by University of Florida historian C. John Sommerville, was superb. Thanks in part to the excellent coverage from the Cornell Chronicle, the lecture was attended by approximately 100 members of the Cornell community. Sommerville gave a wide-ranging talk based on his several books regarding religion in the modern research university. The lecture was captured on video, and we hope to announce its availability on Cornell Cast soon.  This named lecture signified a new level of interest and commitment to the Chesterton House ministry from alumni located at the ends of the earth, or at least in southern California. We were especially pleased that Carl and Elaine Neuss, who made this event possible, were able to join us in person.  

CONSORTIUM NEWS

Chesterton House is privileged to be a founding member of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. The Consortium held its first member symposium, a day-long meeting with sociologist James Davison Hunter, in September, and will hold its first annual meeting in San Francisco November 18 and 19. Held in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society, Society of Biblical Literature, and American Academy of Religion meetings, the symposium is open to anyone interested in learning more about the study center movement.  Chesterton House director Karl Johnson will serve on a panel discussing best practices along with David Mahan of the Rivendell Institute (Yale) and Drew Trotter, Executive Director of the Consortium. 

FINANCIAL UPDATE

Thanks to our many faithful supporters, we are "above water" for the first quarter of our fiscal year ending September 30th. To help keep us there, please see details on how to give to Chesterton House: http://www.chestertonhouse.org/donate. We appreciate your partnership!

SURVEY & STRATEGIC PLANNING

Thanks also to all of you who filled out our online survey prior to our strategic planning retreat last month.  The survey generated of 50 printed pages of data(!) and has already been helpful to us in charting a course for the coming years. We'll have more to report on those plans soon.  

KARL JOHNSON TO SPEAK IN DALLAS

Karl Johnson will give two talks at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas on Sunday, Nov. 6th.  Both talks are open to the public.  Dallas area friends and alumni should feel free to join us and to invite friends.  More info can be found at the Park Cities Presbyterian Church website.  

"No metaphysical scheme that dismisses [religious experiences] as incidental epiphenomena would be doing justice to the richness of reality.

John Polkinghorne

http://www.chestertonhouse.org