Dr Sean O'Leary, Director of Pastoral Development in the Diocese of Ferns
Culture is often described as the human-made part of the environment that includes the complex ecosystem of knowledge, architecture, art, law and social norms. It is inherited as concepts expressed symbolically and reinterpreted or adapted with each generation. We don’t openly know, recognise or state the rules that govern culture as we live and experience the human world. Yet, culture can change in our lifetimes often in unpredictable ways. This is because culture often positions humans as separate from nature and the only beings in existence capable of determining meaning and purpose. It’s a short step towards thinking that humans can transform the world in any way that they please.
The word church comes from the Greek ecclesia, which means those who ‘are called out’ of the world to form a distinct society. In this sense, the Church is the universal community of the faithful, the Kingdom of God and the Mystical Body of Christ. In local terms, the word church can also be applied to a place of worship and also to a parish community.
Faith is primarily an expression of trust or dependence on something or someone outside of oneself. In Christianity, the source of our faith is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unlike many things in life that we can put our faith in, divine revelation and our lived experience tells us that our faith in God is trustworthy because God is powerful, loving, good and merciful. In very real ways, it is this receptiveness to God that nourishes and drives our interactions with the world around us.
Both within the Church and outside of it, it is well understood that faith can shape culture and that culture can shape faith. In many intricate ways, Western culture has been significantly formed by Christian faith. Therefore, the complete separation of Church and the surrounding culture that some voices call for is by and large an impossible ideal due to the complexity of the connections involved. When describing modern European countries, the simple phrase ‘post-Church society’ is more accurate for now than the oft-repeated phrase ‘post-Christian society’.
In the world today, we are often surrounded by messages from businesses, media, politics and other cultural movements. It is practically inescapable if one wants to live in the world. And so, on the surface of things, it is difficult to differentiate a Christian from anyone else. However, a distinguishing feature of the Christian life is that all faithful Christians strive to dwell within the living Word of God.
This is an essential point because many Christian commentators rightly fear that modern cultural accomplishments will eventually fade without the generative impulse of Christian revelation tethered to the action of God in the world. And so, the important question is: what happens to modern Western culture when it is entirely divorced from its Christian heritage? If we care at all about the future, this is an essential question to grapple with. The developments of modern society particularly in terms of the protection of life do not provide adequate reassurance about the future.
The great sadness here is that when human thought is separated from love, it risks becoming short-sighted, self-referential and destructive. The only deep and lasting solution to this cultural impoverishment is to maintain our orientation in the world by contemplating often the mystery of God’s love. This might fruitfully include generous evaluations of secular ideas and reflections on how they are enhanced and illuminated by the Christian faith.
Perhaps the greatest challenge that modern culture poses to the future is the loss of thanksgiving and forgiveness in the often-unquestioning pursuit of human progress. Despite this, modern culture is still largely underpinned by Christian values and remains open to deeper insights. There is certainly a pastoral role for the Church in this endeavour and the processes of synodality might well provide the impetus for moving forward.
Synodality explicitly acknowledges the reciprocal relationships between people and facilitates dialogue and co-operation. These processes have the potential to shape future evangelization initiatives. At the very least, this might lead to a renewed awareness of the contributions of a living faith to the broader culture that we inhabit. Such processes could also help people to more consciously respond to God’s call amidst the din of contemporary life.
Listening to the Word of God, understanding faith, discerning the signs of the times and dialoguing with the surrounding culture all form part of the Church’s synodal vocation in the service of proclaiming the Gospel. Trust, integrity and courage, with the help of the Spirit, equips us to enter more fully into the majestic landscape of God’s vision and helps us to communicate the truly wonderful message that a joyful sacrament of unity exists in the world.