Review: Sacred Matters-My Conclusion

In the end the book turns out to be a little repetitive.  Since every chapter explores how some of the same religious activities and thinking are present in the different topics which are explored you sometimes get the feeling that you don't need any more convincing, although each chapters contains interesting stories and data.  Each chapter explores how things like the formation of community, the teaching of ethical and moral values, transcendent experiences, ritual behavior, and life transformations are present in the different communities.  Each is not completely separate from the other, many of them overlap with one another, which proves Laderman's point that we all belong to a variety of religious communities, some complementary and some conflictual.  To avoid becoming bored with the repetitiveness of the chapters this might be a good book to read over a longer period of time possibly reading one chapter at a time.

An interesting theme touched on the book is the myths told by each of these different communities of people.  As a Christian I inhabit the biblical narrative, it's the story which frames the world for me and within which I find myself.  In short the biblical narrative is the story that tells me who I am and what my purpose is in life.  Something not thoroughly explored but hinted at is the myth-making quality of each of the topics explored in this book.  Each chapter highlighted a story out of which people are living their life.  I live my life out of many different stories as well, but the biblical story interprets them all.  My lesser identities are subordinated to my primary identity as a member of the church of Jesus Christ.  I think that all of the topics Laderman explores in this book can function as identity-forming stories in people's lives.  They find purpose in these stories and they find a place in this world.  The question then becomes, what is your meta-story?  Which story gives meaning to all the smaller stories that make up your life?  That is the story in which you most likely encounter the sacred.

Lastly, I think the resurgence of such a plurality of religious commitments in people’s lives is becoming more and more possible as the lines between the sacred and the secular increasingly blur.  I say resurgence because for too long our culture operated with a false dichotomy of secular and sacred, or spiritual and ordinary.  As our culture completes the turn from modernity into postmodernity our awareness of the sacred in our everyday lives is growing.  Although Laderman emphasizes that god is not necessary for many kinds of religious behavior and thinking I am hopeful that many more will find him there where they least expect it.  As secularism is unmasked by pluralism we will be more and more able to speak from where our true allegiances lie instead of from the pseudo-neutral secular horizon.  Only then will we begin to have true dialogue; when our identity-shaping stories are no longer masked and when we realize that we all worship something, the question is who/what.