Secularism and Religion

 
A summary of Father Alexander Schmemann main points that he makes in his book For the Life of the World:

Father Alexander’s vision of the liturgy forms part of a theological vision which he formulated for the first time in one of his earliest publications, originally a series of lectures for the World Christian Student Federation, entitled For the Life of the World. This little book deals with the sacraments, but it is far from a scholastic or academic treatment of the topic -- which explains its success and its translation into many languages. Father Alexander speaks about the Sacraments within the context of a vision of the world, of creation. He explains that creation has been given to man as a means of communion with God. Eating and drinking, therefore, are sacred acts. Being hungry means being hungry for God. This explains the practice of fasting, which reminds us that we are completely dependent on God, the Origin of our life. In the celebration of the Eucharist, food appears as the means par excellence by which our communion with God is again restored.

Father Alexander pointed out that this Christian outlook of the world had been lost in the secularist culture of our time. According to the secularist view, the world, creation, had become an end in itself. Father Alexander explained that secularism is not the same thing as atheism. A secularist may believe in God but in the secularist vision of the world, God is no longer at the center of man’s life. The world has become separated from God. That is why Father Alexander characterized secularism as the main heresy of our time.
Father Alexander taught that religion is essentially not different from secularism. For religion has the same point of departure: the separation between God and man, that is, between the “sacred” and the “profane.” Only its approach is different: it intends to overcome this separation by sacred rites, to touch the “sacred” and to escape from the world.

Father Alexander taught that the only answer both to secularism and to religion is the revelation, given to the Church, of the restoration of the world (the creation) through Christ’s Death and Resurrection, as the Kingdom of God. This revelation is experienced in the liturgy of the Church, first of all and foremost in the celebration of the Eucharist. The Eucharist, and in general the liturgy, is no longer to be seen as a private devotion (either of the clergy or of the faithful), but as an ecclesial act. This cosmic and eschatological dimension of the Church, and the ecclesial meaning of the liturgy are the main themes of Father Alexander’s theological writings.

Father Alexander was not an academic theologian or a scholar. His writings have a personal and prophetic style. The point of departure of all his theological reflections was one particular theme, or rather, one particular vision, which he repeated over and again: eschatology as the essential characteristic of Christianity, and the Eucharist (and the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church) as the expression and experience of the Kingdom. This prophetic vision makes him one of the major Orthodox theologians of the 20th century.