Description
Faith in Secular Life finds signals of transcendence in the most unlikely places. Drawing on film, novels, popular culture, music, sport and secular buildings, the Very Revd. Prof. Martyn Percy shows that the modern world teems with transcendent debris. He tracks how quotidian ‘Implicit Religion’ (a term coined by Edward Bailey, 1935-2015) reveals sacred currents lying just beneath the surface of ‘secular’ life.
Following Bailey, Percy holds that the lens of Implicit Religion is essentially ‘bifocal’ in nature. It allows simultaneous focus on elements in the foreground and aspects which lie at a greater distance. Observing immediate, ordinary human activity against the more distant horizon of ‘secularisation’, Bailey’s bifocal aperture brought the two together and placed them in a single framework for discussion.
However, whilst Implicit Religion was fundamentally about identifying people’s commitments, Faith in Secular Life pursues the idea further to analyse specific areas of contemporary culture which would normally be seen as faithless. Individuals may be unconscious that their actions can be understood as ‘religious’, yet, Percy maintains, their participation remains saturated with sacredness and spirituality.
About the Author
The Very Revd. Prof. Martyn Percy lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the Provost Theologian for Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Professor of Religion and Culture at the University of Saint Joseph Macao. He also works as Senior Research Associate at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, and as a Research Professor of Theology at the University of Bern, with further Fellowships at Edinburgh, London and Oxford universities. He writes and teaches on culture, faith, values and public life, and contributes to Prospect, The Guardian and The Times.
Contents
Introduction: Saeculum
Part One: Literature, Music and Film
Part Two: Spirituality, Space and Place
Part Three: Religion in Public Life
Part Four: The Secular Inside Religion
Conclusion: Keep Calm and Carry On
Index
Endorsements and Reviews
This book finds theological meaning in a karaoke bar, philosophical discussion in the chants of a football crowd, and spirituality in a shopping mall. Percy proves that faith hides in plain sight. It can even appear in the Jazz Age of ‘The Great Gatsby’ wearing sequins. Witty, wise, and not infrequently mischievous, Percy’s theological excavations show us that the sacred refuses to stay politely in church.
The Rev’d Professor Stephen Morgan, Rector, University of Saint Joseph, Macao SAR, China
This book engages in the religion and secularisation debate by venturing to interpret the implicit religious ideas, motifs and symbols that governing the secular world. Drawn from literature, music and film, in many ways, Percy saw this work as a synthesis of his essential insights on helping people to know and encounter God in the secular realm. He demonstrates skilfully the depth of Christian Faith embedded in the secular artworks while the artists showcasing their talents, they are reaching people with the Gospel. I recommend this book as ‘must read” to theological students, Clergy , laity and to those who want to encounter God in the secular realm.
The Most Revd Dr Paul Kwong is Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Principal of Ming Hua Theological College, Hong Kong.
This very creative and provocative book explores the landscape of ‘God being found abroad’ beyond the established religion of the church. The institutional phase of Christianity is effectively over, now replaced by multiple networks of socio-spiritual-political values.
Spiritual writing is a congested field, but steeped as he is in the literature and many conversations, I consider Martyn Percy to be prophetic and unparalleled in his ability to find a way through the debris. I highly recommend his book.
The Revd Prof. Sir Iain Torrance (President Emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary)
