Blog post, “How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a Believer“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America

Ledewitz, Bruce

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Duquesne University: Digital Commons

Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Hallowed Secularism The Collective Works of Bruce Ledewitz, Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and Professor of Law 9-18-2010 September 18, 2010: How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a Believer Bruce Ledewitz Duquesne University, ledewitz@duq.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/ledewitz-hallowedsecularism  Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Law and Philosophy Commons Repository Citation Ledewitz, B. (2010). September 18, 2010: How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a Believer. Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/ledewitz-hallowedsecularism/460 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Collective Works of Bruce Ledewitz, Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and Professor of Law at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hallowed Secularism by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact beharyr@duq.edu. Title: How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a BelieverDate: 2010-09-18T03:14:00.003-04:00 9/18/2010—Last night I attended a Kol Nidre service at amessianic Jewish community. It struck me that their modelmight be an important piece of a secular future. The questionfor that future is, how am I to live? That question includesthe sub-question, how am I to raise my children? So far,since I left Judaism, the answer to the question of how tolive has been a void: I just don’t engage in religiousactivities. That life, as I suggested in the book, HallowedSecularism, is empty and flat. There must be a better way.Istart with several assumptions that other secularists willnot share. First, the religions of humankind are true—theycontain the blueprint for how to live flourishing humanlives. Second, humanism in all of its guises is basicallyfalse. Humanism is false in that there really is power inreality—you could say structures to avoid any theisticmisunderstanding—to which human beings must accommodatethemselves and which humans tend to resist throughself-centeredness, hatred and indifference. Third,flourishing human life requires rhythm and prayer.Fourth,flourishing human life requires stories. Fifth, of all thereligious traditions, the one best suited to a secularist inthe West, (for lots of reasons) is the Judeo-Christiantradition. Jesus, understood as a Jew, is the best example ofhow to live a human life. Religious believers have the stuffof flourishing human lives. However, the secularist cannotactually join any of these religious traditions in good faithbecause the secularist rejects core values of all of them.So, what then is already available to the secularist?Thereare two existing models, both great, but neither one for me.One is really liberal religion, such as the various Unitariantraditions. I talk about this in Hallowed Secularism, buthere let me say that many Unitarian churches are open to allreligious traditions except Christianity. It is hard to beJesus centered in a Unitarian Church. The other is humanisticJudaism or other forms of humanism. The former excludes Jesusand the latter is insufficiently Judeo-Christian.What we areleft with is, ironically, the entire Bible, Jewish andChristian, reinterpreted along secular lines. Eventually, Icould see a community forming around the Judeo-Christiancalendar, including a Sabbath (Saturday? Sunday?). TheSabbath is absolutely necessary to resist voraciouscapitalist consumption as the only goal of human life—today’ssecular heresy.One more thing. Secular life also requires asecular Mishna—the original form of Jewish law. Secular liferequires continuous reflection on how people should live.People are not free to live as they choose. If they thinkthey are free, they will likely end up as slaveholders ordestroyers of nature and think they have done nothing wrongas their world deteriorates.

September 18, 2010: How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a Believer

https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1459&context=ledewitz-hallowedsecularism

September 18, 2010: How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live: Like a Believer

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