Dewey, John - A Common Faith Ch 3

04/24/2009

Yale University Press, 1934

This final chapter focuses mainly on the distinction that religions draw between two realms of living, the supernatural and the natural, or the sacred and the profane. The biggest current threat to religion, author claims, is the growing participation and involvement that humans have with those profane/natural realms of life: an involvement in science, technology, commerce, civics, etc. In the rise of these other engagements, the church-- or participation in a religion-- has become a special kind of institution within a secular community-- it has lost its supremacy over all realms of life (pg60-2). While science itself may have had little direct effect in this 'shift in the social center of gravity', author argues it has had a great indirect effect in changing many of the conditions that humans now live under (pg62-3). The problem for religions (but not a religious attitude) is this distinction between the supernatural and the natural, since now the natural has risen greatly in concern. However, a religious attitude, as previously defined as a life outlook motivated by ideals found in the imagination, needs to make no such distinction and is therefore free to permeate all realms of human social life. (pg66-68)

Author then discusses what he sees as the evolution of the supernatural that permeated human life (when it was invoked for explanations of natural events) to now its self-made relegation of a special mode of relating to the supernatural (pg69-70). Author also links this to the argument that humans need the supernatural for moral motivation and spiritual vitality and offers the alternative that our concrete relations provide us with the necessary motivations and experiences. (pg70-1)

Author takes some time to counter a possible objection from a religion: that those other realms of human social life are rife with corruption, cynicism, greed, sins, etc and therefore aren't worth investing in compared to religion and the church.(pg74) What this argument assumes, author argues, is that the current social institutions are the only ones possible for humans to have, or that the ones we have now are essentially this way, rather than accidentally this way. Once our social institutions are seen in a historical context, there is no reason to think they must continue in the way they operate now. (pg75-8) This kind of thinking makes the supernatural realm and the maintenance of the status quo 'twins'(pg78).

Thus the secular objection to religion is that it considers material conditions that are very changeable to be unchangeable or it has 'the tendency to dispose of social evils in terms of general moral causes' (pg77). (pg77-80) The argument is that the separated realm of religion often rails against the symptoms of social problems, rather than the causes (pg69), which are to be studied by social science, economics, politics, etc. Thus the churches find themselves in a difficult situation-- to the extent they wish to participate in working for social betterment they have to be involved in the natural world, yet in an awkward way must still hold their 'unique relation' to 'supreme values and motivating forces', making 'it impossible for the churches to participate in promotion of social ends on a natural and equal human basis'. (pg83) Author sees the salvation of the religious attitude to engage in the world through concerted effort that isn't diverted through a religion that claims a special realm of authority. Author draws a contrast between 'intelligence' and 'reason'; intelligence specifically can be infused with emotional support and passion, while reason is considered contrary to such an infusion. (pg79)