The Meaning of the West: An Apologia for Secular Christianity

by Cupitt, Don

• ISBN13: 9780334042020
• ISBN10: 033404202X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-20
• Publisher: Scm Pr

Summary

Don Cupitt proposes a reinterpretation of Christian history, arguing that the meaning of the West is not Catholic Christian, but radical Christian. The original Jesus was a secular figure, a utopian teacher of ethical wisdom. He argues that the core of Western culture is simply the old Christian spirituality extraverted. Today, Christian supernatural doctrine is dead, but the secular 'West' is Christianity itself is now emerging in its final, 'Kingdom' form.

Author Biography

Don Cupitt is a Life Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
What is the West?	p. 1
God Secularizes Himself	p. 15
The West as Secularized Christianity	p. 26
The Indelible	p. 37
Enlightenment Values?	p. 49
Progress: The Accumulated Indelible	p. 56
The West as Modernity	p. 68
Modernity as a State of Exile	p. 76
Stories about Modernity	p. 83
Scrupulosity	p. 94
Critical Thinking, God and Nihilism	p. 102
The Western Self: Denial and Affirmation	p. 111
The Indelible Dream	p. 122
The Disappearance of the Sacred	p. 128
Historical Change, for the Better	p. 134
The Ethical Difference	p. 140
The Afterlife of Christianity	p. 148
Notes	p. 156
Bibliography	p. 165
Index	p. 169
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