Religion and Society
Gerry O’Hanlon, S.J., MA, L Ph, STL, PhD is a Theologian at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and the Milltown Institute, Dublin
Gerry O’Hanlon, SJ
Issue 378, vol.95, Summer 2006
A faith-community might theoretically limit its discourse about public-policy issues to its own circle – to discussing the attitudes which members should adopt towards “the public square”. Alternatively, it might engage publicly on such issues through analytic-secular discourse while prescinding from explicit mention of the faith-roots of its convictions.
But even the latter approach might be to underestimate some chinks of welcome towards a religious input already opening up on the “secular” side. An analogous role – as conversation-partners and opinion-formers on the values and norms of civil society – is already being accorded by political philosophers to bodies like universities and media. “A truly democratic and inclusive society values its faith community…as a source of value and meaning for our people”, said our Taoiseach – whose Government this year begins a formal dialogue with the faith communities.
Indeed, the extent of shared convictions may well be broader than the churches suspect – for the simple reason that the ideology of modern secularism seems to be running itself into the ground. Optimism regarding the self-evident nature of human progress, is on the wane – as it is confronted by the spectacles of war, global injustice, loss of meaning at personal level and suicide (even in the midst of wealth). The dominant notion of “reason” has been found too restrictive – having concerned itself in too instrumental a way with means rather than with ends, and having issued in the tyranny of moral relativism. The human soul has not been satisfied, the full sense of the transcendent and the spiritual has been imperilled. So, within the heart of postmodernity itself, a space is opening up for the re-enchantment of our world. In place of a philosophical culture of self-interest, a philosophy of “the common good” is called for. The watchword “freedom from” needs to give way to “freedom for”.
More and more in the West, people will be asking themselves : Has our loss of a sense of God resulted in the loss of a sense of solidarity with one another – and the consequent loss of the “will” to improve the lot of the poorest ? In the past, the Jesus Story motivated slaves striking out for freedom, suffragettes, civil rights campaigners, rebels against communism. And today postmodernity is not uncomfortable with “story” or vision – which can nudge people faced with data susceptible to many interpretations, in one direction rather than another. All of which , of course, should not deter a socially active Christian from using all the tools of social analysis, and of the ancillary disciplines.
In Ireland, we have had no long experience of the post-Enlightenment church-state separation; and the church retains an authoritarian image (compounded by perceived failures of authority to curb sexually child-abusing personnel). Many of our people will still be allergic to any religious intervention in the public sphere – and may even adduce baleful comparisons with the interventions of the U.S. “religious right”.
There is a vague parallel here with the way in which the religion of Islam dominates the whole of society’s life in certain countries. In places, Islam today stands in need of post-agrarian modernisation – so that the civic sphere can be both Sharia-imbued and democratically tolerant. Otherwise, these flashpoints could represent one more threat to today’s polarised and dangerous world.
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