Responding to Secularism

The full cast convenes to discuss Ross Douthat's recent essay on the 'cul-de-sacs' of the Christian intellectual movement.

As secularism has grown ascendant and liberalism has become decadent, Christians have used different strategies to respond. Some change to accommodate the culture, some hunker down and wait for it to blow over, and some propose re-Christianizing America. Ross Douthat recently wrote a piece analyzing these responses. You’ll get a lot more out of this Mere Fidelity conversation if you read Ross Douthat’s article first. Nothing says Mere Fidelity better than a heated exchange over the pronunciation of ‘amicable.’

The Book of the Month is Anglicanism: A Reformed Catholic Tradition by Gerald Bray. In this volume, Dr. Bray argues that some theological trajectories are more faithful than others to the nature and history of the Church of England. Readers looking to understand the diversity, nature, and future of Anglicanism will be helped by Bray’s historical examination. For the month of April 2021, Mere Fidelity listeners will get a 40% discount on their purchase of this volume with the code MEREFIDELITYAPR21 at checkout.

Timestamps

0:00
Mere Anglicanism
1:36
“The Cul-De-Sacs of the Christian Intellectual” by Ross Douthat
13:48
Ecumenism not Accommodation
19:40
Analyzing the Different Christian Strategies
27:08
What is the job of the church?
35:20
Each Mere Fi Member’s Unique Contribution

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Timothy Crouch for keeping us organized. Special thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

Secularism Modernity Church Culture
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