The sacred today

The problems of defining and investigating religion mentioned above are already expressive of the shifts in modern consciousness regarding the sacred. Both the physical and social sciences have given modern man a new image of himself and techniques for improving his present life. The acceptance of rational and critical perspectives for judging the claims of religious authorities in Europe since the 18th century, plus the development of historical criticism and a sense of historical relativism, has contributed to the affirmation of man as basically a secular person. The once absolute authorities in the West (the Bible, priest, rabbi) are no longer the prime sources for one’s self-identity. To a growing extent the cultures in the East are also experiencing a loss of their traditional authorities. Some attempts have been made to resacralize contemporary cosmology, history, and personal experience by (1) extending the scope of religious concerns to “secular” areas such as politics, economics, personality development, and art; and (2) modifying theological positions, ethical norms, and liturgical forms to incorporate new modes of expression and to experiment with new styles of living.

An important 20th-century development in religious life has been the easy flow of information between religious communities on different continents. This has provided an opportunity for experimenting with religious forms from outside the traditionally acceptable forms in a culture. During the 1950s and 1960s, for example, Yoga and Zen meditation were serious religious options for some Westerners and a form of experimentation for large numbers. The concern to experiment with personal experience and with styles of living during the 1960s in the West has itself been considered an important religious expression by some commentators. These years saw considerable exploration in exotic experience with psychedelic drugs, many attempts to set up new communities for group living (communes)—though few lasted more than a year—and a shift in the values of middle class youth from a concern for personal economic security to social and experiential concerns. These recent activities may be viewed as attempts to recapture the experience of the sacred.

Throughout the past hundred years a number of philosophers and social scientists have asserted the disappearance of the sacred and predicted the demise of religion. A study of the history of religions shows that religious forms change and that there has never been unanimity on the nature and expression of religion. Whether or not man is now in a new situation for developing structures of ultimate values radically different from those provided in the traditionally affirmed awareness of the sacred is a vital question. The suggestion that a radically different kind of reality is possible is, of course, nonsense for those to whom the sacred already has been manifested once and for all in a particular form.