Above Us Only Sky: The Religion of Ordinary LifeDon Cupitt believes that a new and truly global religious consciousness has been quietly easing itself in around the world. It does not need any visible organization and does not make any non-rational doctrinal claims. It is the religion of life a secular, purely this-worldly, and radically-democratic affirmation of ordinary life. Where prescientific ages saw Heaven, he says, we see only sky. We have given up belief in a supernatural world, and we have felt compelled to break with the received ecclesiastical form of Christianity. But the Christian spirit of critical thinking, of systematic self-criticism and perpetual reform, has spread around the whole world in modern science, technology, critical history, and liberal democracy. In Above Us Only Sky, in 27 brief slogans, he presents a systematic theology of this religion of ordinary life, setting it against its philosophical background, its spirituality and its relation to other faiths. It is, he says, the legacy and the long-awaited fulfillment of Christianity. |
Common terms and phrases
absolute knowledge affirmative already arguments Axial Age become belief century Christian Church claim communal continual cosmic critical thinking culture death Derrida Descartes developed divine doctrine Don Cupitt dream eternal Everyday Speech everything everywhere evil expression faith feel finite give globalization God's Grand Narrative hauntology Hebrew Bible Heidegger holy human life-world ideas identity impossible object intellectual Islam Jews Judaism Kant kind language Leibniz liberal look metaphysical modern moral Muslims nation never Nietzsche nihilism nowadays objective reality old religions one's organized religion ourselves outsideless past perfect perhaps philosophy Plato Polebridge Press pure question Radical Orthodoxy readymade reason religion of ordinary sacred SCM Press secular secular humanism seems sense simply social society solar living soul spirituality supernatural talk temporal theology things tion tradition true truth trying valuation values West Western whole