Secular Modernity and the Divisions in the Church, by Rodney Howsare

“The Catholic does not shrink from the world’s boundless horizon, and he does not abandon a supposedly ‘secularized age’ for some safe inner sanctum; rather, he robustly spells out everything—Church and world—using the alphabet he has learned from Christ.”—Hans Urs von Balthasar¹

Perhaps the saddest characteristic of the battles going on within the Church these days is the fact that both sides so easily allow themselves to frame the issues in modern, political terms. If the world shall have its New York Times and its New York Post, then the Church shall have its National Catholic Reporter and its National Catholic Register, and one side shall be called “liberal” and the other shall be called “conservative.”

Part of the problem is the assumption that one can work out one’s Catholicism within the categories and presuppositions of secular modernity and the Classical Liberalism that gave birth to it. This needs to be challenged. …

Continue reading >>>>>>>>>