I examination The first question, as with so many types of secular­

ization, involves the standard with which comparison is being made. What is to be understood by the 'sacral character' of which the world is being deprived? How all-pervading is, or was, it? Is the change represented by the loss of this character of the same order as the types of secularization discussed above, or does it represent a more irreversible trend than, for instance, the category of 'institutional decline'? It would seem that with desacralization one enters a rather different area of discussion, an area which is unable to employ

statistics and demographic measurements, and cannot usefully embrace

many of the functional theories of sociology, for this category is 4 essentially ideological. This chapter will attempt to discuss some

of the origins and implications of the theory of desacralization.

j

i

The Sacral Universe ”3|

'Pre-secular man lives in an enchanted forest. Its glens

and groves swarm with spirits. Its rocks and streams are 3£| alive with friendly or fiendish demons. Reality is

charged with a magical power that erupts here and there to threaten or benefit man. Properly managed and utilized this invisible energy can be supplicated, warded off, or channelled . . ..'9

The view of the universe as sacred and mysterious is old. From earliest times man's struggle for survival led him to believe that divine (and demonic) powers penetrated the very fabric of the universe, and thus he developed elaborate rites to placate these powers, though

57 -

clearly, some held these powers to be more potent than others. Gradually, greater sophistication arose, but many long-standing

6

beliefs, emotions and fears remained . At the heart of these emotions stands great feeling of 'more-than-awe' described by Otto as ’mysterium

7

treraendum' . This feeling may be seen as central to the concept of the sacral universe. The sacral universe has been described as,

'one in which the functioning of nature and society is explained in terms of the divine . . . man is at the mercy of nature . . . dependent upon it . . - largely unable to control it . . . (man) has to seek divine assistance in order even to live. Nature appears to have almost divine features; it is an epiphany of God himself, and the workings of nature are understood as the workings of God.'8

Religious belief is clearly central to such a society, but the place of religious practice is somewhat more problematical, since rituals and ceremonies might be deemed almost superfluous in this setting. However, a threefold function has been claimed for religion in a society holding a belief in the sacral universe. Firstly, religion would act as the protector and preserver of society, insofar as that society ensured that God was given due veneration; secondly, it

provided structures of legitimation and explanation, and thirdly, religion and its ritual protected man against a universe which he

9

dominated neither intellectually nor materially . Each of these functions

6 Although such beliefs originated in primitive society, many of them remained part of popular culture for centuries. In some communities they still live on in traditional folk-tales. cf., for example, many of the tales in Briggs, K.M., and Tongue, R.L., Folktales of England, R.K.P., 1965- Rites and their underlying beliefs are fully discussed by Frazer, J.G., The Golden Bough, Macmillan, 1936.

7 Otto, R., The Idea of the Holy, 1917, E.T., O.U.P., 1923, ch.4. The question of the nature and place of awe will be considered again in section 2 in the discussion of worship.

8 Davies, J.G., op.cit., p.4. 9 ibid., pp.9-11.

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is the antithesis of the role of religion in a secular society, and they therefore help to illuminate some of the concepts of secularization discussed above"'^.

The concept of 'the Holy*

Any conception of a 'sacral universe' depends upon an idea of 'the holy' permeating that universe- There is usually also an equally strong idea of a polarity between this and the 'profane'-

The idea of the holy has been treated in a variety of ways- The 11

classic modern exposition of this idea was Otto's . He was concerned with the concept specifically in terms of the sacral universe, and his aim was to evoke the holy rather than to conceptualise it- Davies'

Every Day God, to which reference has already been made, may be regarded as an attempt at a contemporary reply to Otto. Davies sees the holy not in terms of the numinous, nor in terms of the sacred and profane

12 13

as antithetical realities , but in positive and yet mundane terms . The holy can be found in the most ordinary of everyday experiences, and is not confined to one limited area of human life. Davies' argument rests on three basic points, firstly, that the holy and the secular

are not identical, but distinct, despite their essential unity; secondly, that their unity does not violate the integrity of the secular, but

allows it to be truly itself; and thirdly, that the holy is not an extra 14

added to human experience, but an integral part of it . There is a

10 This point will be developed more fully later in the chapter. 11 Otto, R., op.cit.

12 This view of the polarity of, and division between the sacred and the profane will be discussed below.

13 Davies, J.G., op.cit., esp. p.79« 14 ibid., p.90.

59

clear contrast here between Davies' view of the holy and the view which is willing to identify the holy only in a small number of essentially 'cultural' areaq, even within which the possibility of

15

identifying the holy may be strictly limited

Is the holy to be regarded as identical with ’the sacred'? Particularly in discussions of the polarity with 'the profane', the terms 'the holy' and 'the sacred' are often used interchangeably, and they are clearly closely related- However, it has been argued that the distinction between these two terms should be maintained. This view is held by Hartt"'^, who has a clearly defined view of the sacred, and yet is prepared to take his quest for the 'holy' far beyond the bounds of 'the sacred'. There remains, nevertheless, a large area of overlap between the.two concepts.

Whilst J.G. Davies wished to maintain that the holy may be an integral part of all human experience (though distinct from other elements in this experience), the idea of mystery, traditionally associated with the holy, did not figure largely in his thought. But it may be argued that mystery is still essential to an understanding of the sacred. This close relationship.between mystery and the sacred or holy is brought out in the statement that,

15 cf. Pelikan, J., Human Culture and the Holy, S.G.M., 1959» Pelikan presents a view of a very limited sphere of the holy.

16 Hartt, J.N., 'Secularity and the transcendence of God', in Childress, J.F., and Harned, D.B., op.cit., pp.151-73-

' r::

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'the sacred . . . is the area of mystery . . , • mystery in the sense of a presence in man's experience of a darkness he knows to be light but cannot see, of an intelligibility too bright for his gaze, of a trans­ cendence that evokes his adoration.'17

It may be the case that, as with the holy, the locus of mystery has changed, and that other areas of life may still have the capacity to evoke such a response, though, as has already been shown, mystery may

18