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Chapter 2

The Church and Culture – The Development of Ministry Since Vatican II

i) Blurring the lines - The sacred and the secular

The Church’s response to secular culture arises from the Second Vatican Council,
through which the Church is said to drop its guard and to begin to come to terms with
23
secularism and modernity . In doing so a counter-cultural 24 Church begins to
transform itself, engaging the ‘resources of the culture in pursuit of its own religious
25
mission’ (Whiteheads 1995:57) . Hence secular social sciences are incorporated
and transformed to become a ‘doctrine of Christian anthropology’ (McDonagh
2000:297). This is not simply ‘secular humanism in religious garb’, but a reassertion

of human dignity 26 that is grounded in the ‘image of Christ’ (CES 2005:41). Vatican
II therefore represents the Church coming to accept the subjective turn of
modernism. Specifically it is Christ himself who becomes the subject of the Church’s

engagement and mission in the world through ‘his presence in the Church, in the
Sacraments, in the offices of its bishops, priests and people, in the hearts of all the

faithful, in secular culture, in other faiths, in all humanity and in history itself’
(2005:36).

This convergence on culture 27 is marked by a return to the lived experience, by which

the Church positions itself and allows itself to be positioned by secular discourses,
simultaneously absorbing and deflecting cultural influences (Milbank cited in Ward
2008:19). Indeed in allowing herself to be ‘translated’ by other cultures (CES

23
Von Balthasar asserts that Vatican II represents the Church relinquishing its security system that establishes
the transcendental realm (religious), over the physical realm (secular) (Cited in CES 2005:36). On the Way to Life
states that this “defencelessness” is based upon the fact that Vatican II did not arise as a result of any overt threat
to the Church (36).
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According to Rinere the Church prior to Vatican II is described as inward looking with no external mission. A
clear boundary exists between the clergy who distribute the sacraments, and the people who passively receive
them. (2003:68-71).
25
In Method in Ministry, the Whiteheads give three positions for the encounter between religion and culture. A)
Religion challenges culture. B) Religion is challenged by culture. C) Religion engages with and utilises cultural
resources.
26
Gaudium et Spes reasserts man as “created to the image of God” (GS §12), with a dignity of mind (GS §15),
and moral conscience (GS §16). It establishes a “reverence for the human person” (GS §27) that recognises
equality and social justice for all (GS §29).
27 Pete Ward refers to the “convergence on culture” in terms of how practical theology has become centred upon
culture so that “ideas about God” have become “connected and conditioned by historical and social realities”.
Doctrine and theological expression therefore become embodied and subjective within the lived experience. It
becomes no longer sustainable for academic theologising on its own terms as it misses the point of the
experience of the community of faith (2008:46-50).