FROM RATIONALITY TO SUBJECTIVITY
thousands, of years. We of this generation and nation occupy the
Gibraltar of the ages whi ch commands the world's future.
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With earnest confidence he observed the high challenge and oppor–
tunity before nation: "we stretch our hand into the future with power to
mold the destinies of un-born millions."
Strong was anything but alone in his triumphalism. Such optimism
and expectancy was a defining feature of the spirit of the age, with similar
hopes expressed broadly and shared widely, most especially by and within
the dominant Protestant establishment.
But here we are, a century later.
Religion, on the face of it, continues to flourish. Some academics have
really come to terms with its persistence and even go so far as to say that
the contemporary America is as religious as it has ever been, maybe more.
Observers point out that census and survey data seem to indicate that peo–
ple are going to church, praying, being married in churches, going to Bible
studies, and the like,just as much if not more than they use to. Beyond this
there i the rise of fundamentalisms around the world and their politiciza–
tion. Does this mean that little has changed in the past century? Many
observers make this case precisely.
Such a view, however, would seem rather short-sighted. The method–
ological basis of this conclusion is a facile behaviorism that ignores the
institutional, psychological, and cultural expressions of religious belief.
When considering the matter at these levels we see that the locus of reli–
gion has changed considerably. The central dynamic in this change is the
transformation of religious authori ty.
What do I mean by religious authority? Consider the Latin etymolo–
gy.
The Latin origin of the word "religion" is
religare
meaning "to bind."
The Latin root of the word "authority" is
auctor
meaning originator or
creator. Thus to refer to God as the author of history is to understand God
as the
source
of being; as the Alpha and Omega, the fabric and
telos
of his–
tory. Likewise to refer
to
Scripture as the final authority on matters
religious and spiritual is to see the text as the source of wisdom and knowl–
edge. To understand the changing locus of religion, fin de siecle, one must
examine the transformation of sources that have traditionally "bound"
people-to truth claims, to disciplines of body and mind, to others in acts
of communal sacrifice.
The first thing to be said about this topic of religious authority mere–
ly repeats a commonplace. When the Enlightenment architects designed
the new order of the ages, they deliberately restricted the role of religious
ideals and religious institutions in the ordering of public life. They
