From an interview with JAMES POULOS [The University Bookman] – No conversation would be complete without reference to Philip Rieff, the great sociologist whose The Triumph of the Therapeutic
One predicament we face today is that many smart people like certain things about Christianity—like the forgiving, transformative power of love—but not others; so on the one hand we see “secular” life getting more spiritualistic in this way while on the other our religious life seems to be drifting toward what’s been called “moralistic therapeutic deism.” That mouthful of a phrase is misleading in several respects, but it does suggest a movement in which Christianity is supposed to be “perfected” by shedding some of its most important characteristics. I find it telling that the Judaic and Old Testament character of Christianity is oftentimes the first, and the main, thing to go.
Continued at The University Bookman | More Chronicle & Notices.
