Word: secularity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There is little point, 94 years after his death, in trying to imagine what Van Gogh would have made of all this. Neither the modern mass audience for art, nor the elevation of the artist as a secular saint, nor the undercurrent of faith in the expiratory powers of self-sacrificial genius really existed in 1890. The insoluble paradox of museumgoing, which is that famous art gets blotted out by the size of its public, had not become an issue, and it was not thought "elitist" to express regrets about it. Yet one feels it matters more with Van Gogh...
...transposed into flyaway humor, as in Klee; or semi-industrialized, as in the fulsome productions of late Dubuffet; or, by a host of minor artists, boorishly rehashed as a sign of "sincerity." But it never quite goes away - for who wants to face the tedium of a wholly secular culture...
Though Moon has a compelling argument that the scope of his work makes the $25,000 the government was pursuing seem trivial, he was proved guilty; and the list of his expenditures does seem rather secular. Nonetheless, the issue of selective prosecution remains-why research the Unification Church for five years? Prosecutor Devita contends that the seemingly extraordinary measures clothe a very simple tax case, and stresses that there is no reason for concern that legitimate church activity will be prosecuted because of this case, whether the religions are orthodox, unorthodox, or whatever...
Professor Cox also downplays fundamentalist fears of a Federal cadre of secular humanists setting out to destroy religions. He muses that the Moon case may be an example of the risks of a strong central government...
...greatest mystical thinkers in the United States." Catholic enthusiasm for the book is also significant because in 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, Soloveitchik announced his opposition to theological discussions between Jews and Christians. Interfaith talks, he wrote in one of his rare essays, must be limited to secular topics. Though his policy encourages some contact with Christians, it still limits theological dialogues...