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5 - Why Sacred Anything?

from Part III - This Sacred Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2021

Norman Wirzba
Norman Wirzba
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
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Summary

It is a truism that we live in a secular and disenchanted world. This chapter explores what is at stake in our abandonment/eclipse/rejection of a characterization of this world and its life as sacred. Wirzba examines how modern writers came to experience their life as fragmented and disconnected from a sacred cosmos, and how this feeling for life results in varying forms of homelessness. The forced migration of peoples and the destruction of homeplaces in never-before-seen rates testifies to a need to reinvigorate the sense that places are homes for living and for the cherishing of life as a sacred gift. What our refugee world and our mass extinction time needs is a recovery of the goodness, beauty, and hospitable character of our given life.

Keywords

secularizationsacredmechanismfragmentationmeaninghistorymigrationSabbatheschatology
Type
Chapter
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This Sacred Life
Humanity's Place in a Wounded World
 , pp. 125 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Why Sacred Anything?
  • Norman Wirzba, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: This Sacred Life
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009026185.009
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  • Why Sacred Anything?
  • Norman Wirzba, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: This Sacred Life
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009026185.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Why Sacred Anything?
  • Norman Wirzba, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: This Sacred Life
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009026185.009
Available formats
×