On fighting secularism

ON FIGHTING SECULARISM: William D. Wood thinks it would be a mistake for the current pope to treat secularism as the new enemy of the church like the past pope treated communism, especially if in fighting secularism the church aims to reinstate Christendom. Moreover, it is simply wrong to equate secularism with relativism; not all secularists are relativists.

"To address the spiritual problem of secularism, the church must deploy spiritual tools: it must present the gospel as surpassingly beautiful and worthy of love," says Wood. "Sometimes, I think, the church even needs to get out of the way, and let the gospel present itself as surpassingly beautiful and worthy of love." He concludes that "the church never needs to promote the gospel with the tools of the state," which are "gross and coercive" (Commonweal, June 17).

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
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