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It's just a phase we're going through

It's just a phase we're going through

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In a sensitive article on the murder of Father Jacques Hamel and the French national reaction to it (“France responds to attacks with calls for peace and understanding”), the BBC’s Hugh Schofield used an interesting phrase to describe French society’s (ir)religiosity.

Rather than reach for the stock-in-trade idioms – “France is a post-Christian country today”, “France is now a secular country”, “France is a post-religious country these days” – Schofield wrote that “France is in a post-religious phase of its history”.

It is striking phrase because it invites us to see the country (indeed Europe) in an unusual way. Rather than adopting a confidently linear and progressive view of religious history – once upon a time France was like that, now it is like this: read the runes – it reminds us that history has the capacity to surprise; that the future won’t necessarily be like the past; and that, unless you have access to a crystal ball (and the events of the last few months suggest crystal balls may be a bit overrated) or faith in a kind of secular eschaton, you may be wise to hedge your bets a bit.

It’s also a striking phrase because it sounds a bit like the kind of thing that parents say when they have a difficult teenager in the house. “Kevin is going through a post-religious phase at the moment,” mum said with a sigh. The echo is no doubt accidental but in the service of silly season ruminations rather than strict sociology, here a few parallels between us Westerners and Kevin that might be worth noting.

1.       Like any good adolescent, we are busy rebelling against authority. Thus Trump. Thus (by some readings) the Brexit vote. Thus (at least in part) the reason for Jeremy Corbyn’s grass-roots popularity. Thus the crisis in confidence in virtually every one of our national institutions. Thus the seemingly endless hand-wringing over trust. And thus, of course, our collective turning away from God, or at least the God of institutional religion, envisaged in popular parlance not as a loving Father but an authoritarian, oppressivelaw-giving, obedience-demanding Nobodaddy.

2.       Like any adolescent, we just want to live our own lives in our own way. Thus the unassailable altar of choice, in both economic and social spheres. Thus the endless wrangles of identity politics, in particular on the liberal left, in which my right to select and modify my identity is as limitless as is your duty to respect that choice. Thus the general shift towards bespoke spirituality over against off-the-peg religion. And thus the collective turning away from what novelist Marilynne Robinson (among many others) has called “the givenness of things” that is inherent in any seriously religious worldview. God so often ends his Old Testament edicts with the phrase “I am the Lord”, in much the same way as a parent says “Because I am your mother…” or “In this house, we…” In other words, there is a basic reality around here which I would like you to observe. Adolescents don’t like this.

3.       Like any adolescent, we are deep down a bit afraid. Having sought to throw off the institutions, elites and, ugh, experts who allegedly knew better what was good for us than we did for ourselves, we find ourselves a little alarmed at what the future might actually hold. And, to be honest, there is a lot to be afraid of right now from the terrorism to Trump to Turkey. Be that as it may, surely the rawness of this unvarnished reality is preferable to being patronised or swaddled in cotton-wool by some nanny-god?

The parallel, as noted, is meant for entertainment rather than analysis. Moreover, for all that it might go more than skin deep and wound the irreligious, it is hardly kinder to the faithful (for if irreligiosity is our adolescence, faith is by implication our childhood).

Nonetheless, the underlying point, drawn out by Hugh Scholefield’s felicitous phrase, is worth dwelling on. Cultures do go through phrases. Some last. Some don’t. For all that Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of French laïcité becoming more sensitive to religious faith (see the forthcoming essay on Sarkozy in our series The Mighty and the Almighty) and for all that some have predicted the Islamisication of France or the emergence of Eurabia, there are no signs that France, Europe or the West is on the cusp of any new, religious phase.

But we might still do better to think of phases of national history than imagine that tomorrow will simply be like today, only with more screen time and a little more spending money.

Nick Spencer is Research Director at Theos. His book The Evolution of the West is pubished on 15 September.


Image from wikimedia.org available in the public domain

 

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