"To naturalise the supernatural and to humanise the divine" -- Secular humanism and the Public Language of Prayer

"To naturalise the supernatural and to humanise the divine" is one way of stating the general purpose of what has been called secular humanism, whose origins may be traced for practical purposes to the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.

Various modern philosophies and forms of religion that have embraced pantheism, panentheism, or idealism have come near to naturalising the supernatural and humanising the divine. For in their systems God loses his/her transcendence and becomes only immanent, inextricably united to the cosmos.

Feminism and humanising the divine

It is commonly known amongst theological students that much religious feminism is based, not upon classic theism or more specifically Trinitarian Theism, but rather upon panentheism, the doctrine that the world/cosmos [pan] is in God [en theos], as a baby is in the womb. And it is also commonly known by church leaders and liturgists that from religious feminism - supported by both women and men -- has come the major pressure within the church for the inherited and traditional language of prayer & worship to be changed in order either (a) not to be offensive to women (i.e., to remove from it or to minimize within it the bias towards the
masculine) or (b) to conform to women's religious feelings (e.g.. to use "She" and "Mother" of God).

What is very clear to the informed observer is that modern feminism as such cannot have anything other than a mere mention in the Church of God if the form of language used in worship, prayer and doctrine is traditional [i.e., of the kind used in The Book of Common Prayer (1662/1928) and in the King James (1611) and the Revised Standard (1952) versions of the Bible]. That is, the traditional language of prayer, worship and doctrine has such a form, style and logic that it cannot be made to serve any of the modern innovations proposed by feminism (but, of course, it does maintain the equality of male and female "in Christ" and before God, the Father, for salvation and grace).

A head start
Looking at things from a feminist point of view, the cause was given a head start because others innovators and reformers, initially with different ideas and ideologies, got the process of producing "contemporary language" for worship, prayer and doctrine on the move. The seeds of this modernising movement go back to the period after the Second World War; but, the actual moves that led to the production of Prayer Books and Bible paraphrases/ translations in modern or "contemporary" English began in earnest in the 1960s.

The 1960s was a revolutionary decade in the West when social and cultural values and manners were turned upside down and inside out. One of the cries of that decade was to be modern - with it! To be young in age or at least in heart & mind was seen as a priority. Thus age-long morals, principles, traditions, customs, practices, manners, forms of dress and speech were ditched in order to embrace new ones that emerged in this period. For everything had to be relevant, simple, straightforward, accessible and New.

So it is not surprising that the Churches - Roman Catholic and Protestant - being IN the world (and perhaps too much OF and FOR the world) were caught up in the cry for aggiornomento (updating) and relevance. Thus Liturgy and Bible, Mass and Eucharist, prayer and sermon, book and tract, hymn and song had to be in simple, direct, intelligible and accessible language. (Yet few if any knew precisely what such language was and where it was to be found or
created.)

At the same time, and in the same spirit of innovation, archaisms, aesthetic values, a sense of mystery and of the numinous, long sentences and complex syntax had to go. So whether it was the Roman Catholics translating the new Mass into the vernacular or the Anglicans replacing The Book of Common Prayer with new prayer books, or both Roman Catholics and Protestants producing new versions of the Bible, the cry was for "contemporary" language in the name of relevance, doctrinal clarity and pastoral accessibility. The New was sacred. Today must replace Yesterday!

And the two great casualties were the classic Latin text of the Roman Mass and the classic English texts of the English Bible, Common Prayer and hymnody.

Feminism, liberationism and the language of prayer
So "contemporary language" began with what was seen by many as a mere modernising of archaic words and expressions; but, it soon became the vehicle of the entrance into the Church of various ideologies, of which the most obvious since the 1980s has been that of the secular feminist movement. For now in 2002, whether we look in liturgy, hymns, songs, prayers or in versions of the Bible we see how "contemporary language" is no longer about replacing "Thee/Thou" with "You" and updating old syntax and vocabulary.

Rather, it is about using a modern form of English in order to embrace aspects of modern individualism, human rights, liberation movements, feminism and the lesbigay movement. True the speed of accommodation of these ideologies by the "contemporary language" of prayer, worship and doctrine varies from group to group and church to church; but what is clear is that it rushes on like the molten rock of a volcano coming down the mountain leaving little in its path.

It would seem that' whether we be conservative evangelical or radical liberal or somewhere between in our views, we all (or most of us) have played a part in the rapid work since the 1960s of humanising the divine and naturalising the supernatural for belief in the transcendent God and the use of symbols and signs of transcendence (including of course music as
sign) in relation to him are in rapid retreat on most fronts in the churches.

If things go ahead in the next decade as they have done in the last three of four decades we are going to be at a stage in the English language of being incapable in the latest phase of the "contemporary language" of prayer and worship of staying in relation to, and expressing, traditional doctrine and morals and the virtues of faith, hope and love (agape).

Perhaps now in 2002 is the time for more of us to re-discover the traditional language of faith, hope and love that is so pleasing to the godly heart and soul and which is found in the great treasures of the English religious tradition, the English Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and classic Hymnody. We need to halt the process in the churches of humanising the divine and naturalising the supernatural so that we see in contrast what the Greeks call deification of the people of God.


July 26. 2002 The Revd Dr Peter Toon

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America