Secularism - A Western Heresy
Fr. Andy Booms
Originally posted on 2/7/2010

St. Anselm of Canterbury defined theology as "faith seeking understanding." This definition is still a classic and accurate definition of the work of the theologian. Somewhere in the midst of the Scholastic period the two halves of this definition were disconnected. Faith was taken as a prerequisite and simply ignored and theologians focused on understanding. Left unchecked it is possible this shift caused the Protestant reformation and has given birth to a Western heresy - secularism.

Now there is a lot in this first paragraph and I do not believe that this is the forum to prove all the assertions of the path of western theology since the time of St. Anselm. I would like to invite the reader to imagine if this were true. Assuming that the practice of theology has been separated from the practice of faith it is easy to see theology has changed significantly.

Before moving on let's examine what secularism is. For this I am going to rely on the work of Alexander Schmemann a 20th century Orthodox theologian. He defines secularism as a negation of worship. As such the secularist essentially misunderstands the place of Humanity in creation. A secularist does not have to be an atheist but does need to deny that God is an object of human worship. In place of worship the secularist seeks to understand. There is in the secularist world an understandable meaning inside the world itself which can be discovered by investigation.

There is plenty of room for God in a secular world, but the secularist often sees God as an object of study and not adoration. The secularist arrogantly believes that God can be understood. This distortion leads to the elimination of mystery and of the natural tension all believers must accept to remain in the bounds of correct belief.

Where does this leave us? Certainly secularism is a major problem in the world today and arguably the problem. What this understanding does it helps us choose how to fight or undue the spread of heresy. Many in theology today purport a need for more doctrine or study to undue secularism. However, this only feeds the fire since a secularist is welcome to study God as a source of life and even a frequent participant in the world. The way to stop secularism is by returning to the faith of theology and continuing to worship the Lord with our whole heart, mind and body.