Harvey CoxThe Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective

This is a work that has stood the test of time. It is a relevant today as when I read it in college!

The Secular City not only delineates the main features of contemporary life in the post industrial age where technology has advanced so far that it has made revolutionary inroads to the features of cities across the main capitals of the world and offer a credible presentation of God's presence in this our contemporary world, largely moved by a cynical mental take or indifference to the reality of God. It does so not by means of mere philosophical and sociological presuppositions but by real, down to earth research on actual sociological phenomena. Harvey Cox the author presents the credible, often times astonishing developments of major cities in our world and aims to present his conclusions on how to interpret theology in secular society. Is it even possible to create a theology of the secular city? Do we have to be members of an organized religion to participate in a credible acceptance of God's presence in our world?

A classic..in prisitene condition....

Harvey Cox (born 1929) is an ordained American Baptist minister who also taught theology at Harvard Divinity School. He first came to fame as author of this 1965 theological "bestseller," which (amazingly for a book of serious theology) sold more than one million copies. He has also written books such as  Religion in the Secular City: Toward a Postmodern Theology , The Feast of Fools , Seduction of the Spirit: The Use and Misuse of People's Religion , Turning East , Fire From Heaven The Rise Of Pentecostal Spirituality And The Reshaping Of Religion In The 21st Century , etc. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to a 244-page paperback edition.]He wrote in the Introduction, “This is the age of the secular city. Through supersonic travel and instantaneous communications its ethos is spreading into every corner of the globe. The world looks less and less to religious rules and rituals for its morality or its meanings… For fewer and fewer does it provide an inclusive and commanding system of personal and cosmic values and explanations… The effort to force secular and political movements of our time to be ‘religious’ so that we can feel justified in clinging to OUR religion is, in the end, a losing battle. Secularization rolls on, and if we are to understand and communicate with our present age we must learn to love it in its unremitting secularity… It will do no good to cling to our religious and metaphysical versions of Christianity in the idle hope that one day religion or metaphysics will once again regain their centrality. They will become even more peripheral and that means that we can now let go and immerse ourselves in the new world of the secular city.” (Pg. 3)He argues, “There are three pivotal elements in biblical faith which have each given rise to one aspect of secularization. Thus, the ‘disenchantment of nature’ begins with the Creation, the ‘desacralization of politics’ with the Exodus, and the ‘deconsecration of values’ with the Sinai Covenant… Far from being something Christians should be against, secularization represents an authentic consequence of biblical faith. Rather than oppose it, the task of Christians should be to support and nourish it.” (Pg. 15) Later, he adds, “Our task should be to nourish the secularization process, to prevent it from hardening into a rigid world view, and to clarify as often as necessary its roots in the Bible. Furthermore, we should be constantly on the lookout for movements which attempt to thwart and reverse the liberating irritant of secularization.” (Pg. 31)He explains, “Two motifs in particular characterize the secular city. We call them pragmatism and profanity… By pragmatism’ we mean secular man’s concern with the question ‘Will it work?’ Secular man does not occupy himself much with mysteries… By ‘profanity’ we refer to secular man’s wholly terrestrial horizon, the disappearance of any supramundane reality defining his life… By calling him profane, we do not suggest that secular man is sacrilegious, but that he is unreligious.” (Pg. 52)Of the Creation story, he notes, “Here is a truly exalted view of man. God does not simply insert man into a world filled with creatures … in relationships and meaning patterns already established by decree. Man must fashion them himself. He doesn’t simply discover meaning; he originates it.” (Pg. 64)He suggests, “The secularists of America may be God’s way of warning us that the era of sacred societies is over. Christians have contributed to its demise… By separating pope from emperor and thus granting a certain provisional autonomy to the secular arm, Western Christianity introduced a process which has produced the modern open society and the ecclesiastically neutral or secular state.” (Pg. 87)He states, “The idea of the secular city exemplifies maturation and responsibility. Secularization denotes the removal of juvenile dependence from every level of a society; urbanization designates the fashioning of new patterns of human reciprocity. Combined in the symbol of the secular city, they portray man’s continuing effort to find a basis for common life as archaic order and sacral ties disappear. The secular city emerges as tribes and towns vanish---and the process is never over.” (Pg. 95)He asserts, “The main objections that might be put forward against the secular city as a viable concretization of the ancient symbol of the Kingdom of God do not… stand up to careful scrutiny. The problems of whether God or man brings the Kingdom, whether there is a need for repentance, and whether the Kingdom touches our PRESENT crisis can all be set aside by a thoughtful examination of the idea of the Kingdom in the Bible.” (Pg. 98) He observes, “the church’s task in the secular city is to be the ‘diakonos’ of the city, the servant who bends himself to struggle for its wholeness and health.” (Pg. 116) He adds, “Jesus Christ comes to his people not primarily through ecclesiastical traditions, but through social change… He is always ahead of the church, beckoning it to get up to date, never behind it waiting to be refurbished.” (Pg. 128)He contends, “Our objective here… is not to decry what has happened to work in the technopolitan era but to indicate how in each instance secularization, despite the problems it brings, has opened up new possibilities not present before. In the world of work, as in every other sector of human life, secularization is not the Messiah. But neither is it the anti-Christ.” (Pg. 145)He maintains, “Some Christians believe it is the task of the church to wage total war against this process of secularization. This is a mistake… secularization is a liberation and has its roots in the biblical faith itself… The world… is being divested of its sacral and religious character. Man is… losing the mythical meanings and cultic afterglow that marked him during the ‘religious’ stage of history, a stage now coming to its end. Man must now assume the responsibility for his world. He can no longer shove it off on some religious power.” (Pg. 190) He adds, “The task of the church… might be sketched under three headings: (1) restrained reconciliation; (2) candid criticism; (3) creative disaffiliation. They correspond respectively to the priestly, the prophetic, and the ascetic traditions of church history.” (Pg. 198)He points out, “in secular society politics does what metaphysics once did. It brings unity and meaning to human life and thought… the church looks to the hints God has dropped in the past in order to make out what He is doing today. But clearly the focal point of such reflection, the issues upon which it must center, are none other than the life-and-death issues of the secular metropolis. It must be reflection on how to come to political terms with the emergent technical reality which engulfs us. These are POLITICAL ISSUES, and the mode of theology which must replace metaphysical theology is the POLITICAL mode.” (Pg. 222-223)He suggests, “Perhaps in the secular city God calls man to meet Him first of all as a ‘you.’ This… suggests that man is not to become fascinated with God himself… man’s relationship to God derives from the work they do together… God wants man to be interested not in Him but in his fellow man… In Jesus of Nazareth the religious quest is ended and man is freed to serve and love his neighbor.” (Pg. 231-232)Although “trendy” when it was first published, this book has actually held up rather well over the years. It is “must reading” for anyone seriously studying contemporary theology. (Interested readers should also read the volume,  The Secular City Debate .)