Adiaphora

Be Careful How You Apologize

“All these factors [new science, partisanship during the Wars of Religion, views of religious zeal, etc.] played a role; but I do not think that they can fully illuminate the fourfold anthropocentric shift [in the doctrine of God and providence] I’ve been describing.It is certain that religious fervor fell off among the leading strata of many European countries. A certain skepticism, even a scoffing attitude could be discerned in many a coffee-house conversation or salon. It was this general climate, rather than widespread unambiguously espoused unbelief, which explains the sense we frequently meet among concerned clergy and other serious believers that they had an important apologetic task on their hands.…

Real unbelievers, such as the world knows in profusion today, that is, people who clearly in their own mind reject a belief in God, were not all that numerous in 1751, though the few who fit the description were highly placed. Butler was reacting to a decline in zeal, even a disaffection with religion. But this has existed in many epochs in history, without bringing about an actual rise in a rival belief system.

More significant…is the fact that the great apologetic effort called forth by this disaffection itself narrowed its focus so drastically. It barely invoked the saving action of Christ, nor did it well on the life of devotion and prayer, although the 17th century was rich in this. The arguments turned exclusively on demonstrating God as Creator, and showing his Providence.”

[Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, 225]