Faith in Secular Life

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-7188-9823-6
Verlag: The Lutterworth Press

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 349 g

Draws on film, novels, popular culture, music, sport and secular buildings to show that the modern world teems with transcendence.

Faith in Secular Life finds signals of transcendence in the most unlikely places. The Very Revd. Prof. Martyn Percy tracks how quotidian 'Implicit Religion' (a term coined by Edward Bailey, 1935-2015) reveals sacred currents lying just beneath the surface of 'secular' life.

Following Bailey, Percy holds that the lens of Implicit Religion is essentially 'bifocal' in nature. It allows simultaneous focus on elements in the foreground and aspects which lie at a greater distance. Observing immediate, ordinary human activity against the more distant horizon of 'secularisation', Bailey's bifocal aperture brought the two together and placed them in a single framework for discussion.

However, whilst Implicit Religion was fundamentally about identifying people's commitments, Faith in Secular Life pursues the idea further to analyse specific areas of contemporary culture which would normally be seen as faithless. Individuals may be unconscious that their actions can be understood as 'religious', yet, Percy maintains, their participation remains saturated with sacredness and spirituality.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Percy, Martyn

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Soziallehre und Sozialethik, Pastoral und Seelsorge
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie Christliches Leben & Praxis

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Saeculum
Part One: Literature, Music and Film
Part Two: Spirituality, Space and Place
Part Three: Religion in Public Life
Part Four: The Secular Inside Religion
Conclusion: Keep Calm and Carry On
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Percy, Martyn
THE VERY REVD. PROF. MARTYN PERCY lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the Provost Theologian for Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Professor of Religion and Culture at the University of Saint Joseph Macao. He also works as Senior Research Associate at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, and as a Research Professor of Theology at the University of Bern, with further Fellowships at Edinburgh, London and Oxford universities. He writes and teaches on culture, faith, values and public life, and contributes to Prospect, The Guardian and The Times.