sarkakaiaima

  In past centuries the ancestors or those famous leaders (kings, priests, poets, military men) were revered. In contrast to antiquity and biblical times, we modern people tend to despise and discount the past generations contribution to ideas and our way of life. And with that disregard, many people tend to be indifferent or hostile to religious teaching or claims to revelation in Scripture (or other religious claims). The cry is always for what is “new” and different and cutting edge. Yet even for modernity the sense of the sacred haunts people. I think this is why we see today this irrational insistence that culture is sacrosanct. Everyone becomes aware at some point that merely seeking material goods, bodily pleasures or knowledge does not meet a deeper inner need. We were not made for ourselves and even those who do not read Scripture or care to listen know that inner satisfaction depends upon Something outside of our minds. Thus to try to fill that void people have deifie...

This essay entitled "Sacrosanct" was published in July of 2018, on the blog for Resonance Theological Journal , for which I was a regular contributor for several years. I am publishing it here on my personal blog because of the relevance of the topic.                 One of the great ironies about the whole modern period in Western countries is that people cannot escape a sense of the sacred. One way this yearning comes out is by weighing culture as sacrosanct. We build a way of life which necessarily excludes the Deity from society and our personal lives yet are haunted by our need for that Other which transcends our limited experience and perception of the world. We do not need God because we have technology and superior technical skills yet persistently find that these provide no ultimate meaning. This is the arrogance of modern thought, in its many differing variations, and the emptiness that it leaves. Modern Western people think th...