Relocating Religion: Cultural and Spiritual Realignments

In a so called ‘secular age’ has religion and more specifically Christian faith and belief simply disappeared from public view altogether?

Do modern people no longer require the ‘sacred canopy’ of religion to feel at home in the world? Has the idea and practice of religion become so tarnished with notions of religious fundamentalism and extremism or institutional irrelevance and corruption that by and large, in Europe at least, most people leave it to a small minority of others to be religious on their behalf?

Or is it the case that spirituality and religion have simply re-located elsewhere? Has popular culture become a more convenient and comfortable location for religion than our institutional churches? Do secular people now find religion in aesthetic experiences or in consumerism? Is it the new technologies of robotics, cybernetics and artificial intelligence where people locate religious motifs and future hopes? Or is secularism itself a by product of Christian freedom and responsibility in the world?

We will examine these and a range of other questions as we seek to examine the equivocation and uncertainty that now surrounds the modern experience and practice of religion in the 21st century.

Those not on the MA programme are very welcome to book on this module as an auditor.

Contact Alex Weir for all booking enquiries
aweir@sarum.ac.uk  |  01722 424827  |  01722 424800 (main reception)