On April 27, 2023, McMaster Divinity College held a Church and Culture conference, with the theme of “Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence.” The plenary speakers were Christina M. Gschwandtner (Fordham), Charles Taylor (McGill), Merold Westphal (Fordham), Robert Wuthnow (Princeton), and Stanley E. Porter (McMaster), along with 45 presenters during 4 parallel sessions. This two-volume work is the result of the conference, containing most of the papers presented at the conference, including the plenary sessions by the guest speakers.

• Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter (eds.), Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence, 2 vols., McMaster General Studies Series 17 (Hamilton, ON: MDC Press/Pickwick, 2025).

The conference addressed the question of living in what is currently called “the secular age.” The conference website states: “What are the implications of secularism for the pursuit of transcendence? Is God still able to break through the mundane or is he confined to immanence? And are people able to grasp the ineffable in the midst of the common?” These are the types of questions that this work explores, as the description of the book states (in part): “These two volumes are more than just papers from a major conference . . . They contain genuine attempts by people deeply engaged with their secular surroundings to explain what we mean by transcendence.” The table of contents for both volumes are reproduced below:

VOLUME 1

Part One: Questions of Secularism and Transcendence

• Spirituality sans Sacred: Shapes of the Secular in Postmodern Culture —Christina M. Gschwandtner
• Charles Taylor on Secularism and Transcendence: An Interview —Charles Taylor
• Robert Wuthnow on Secularism and Transcendence: An Interview —Robert Wuthnow

Part Two: Church and Culture

• Recovering God’s Nearness in an Age of Anxiety —Phil C. Zylla
• Spiritual but Not Religious: Engaging with an Emerging Demographic —David I. Yoon
• Making Space for Awe: Writing Transcendence in Canada’s Community Newspapers, 2000-2020 —Peter Bush
• What’s in a Name: Are Self-Transcendent Experiences in Leisure Activities Signals of Transcendence? —Emma Helena Goldstein
• The Incarnation as the Great Connection: Awakening Us to the Presence of God in Everyday Life —Elizabeth Millar
• Starting with the Small Picture: Spiritual Direction and Evangelism in the Age of Authenticity —Jeremy McClung
• Political Religion in “Secular” Canada: Jacques Ellul’s New Demons and a Case Study —Michael Morelli

Part Three: Bible

• When Clouds Rain Transcendence: An Appraisal Analysis of Hebrews 11 —Jonathan M. Watt and James D. Dvorak
• John’s Apocalypse, Transcendence, and the Absence of the Secular —Scott Storbakken
• The Silencing of Scriptures in Modernity —Adrián Tolentino
• Fear of YHWH as the Transcendent Frame for Moral Formation in Proverbs 1-9 —Daniel H.S. Kim

Part Four: Patristics and Theology

• Transcendent in Essence, Immanent in Energies: A Greek Patristic Trajectory —James R. Payton, Jr.
• Melodious Order: Clement of Alexandria’s Musical Analogy as a Model for Christian Worldview Formation and Cultural Engagement —Brendan M. DePhillippeaux
• Why I Believe in God, but Not UFOs: Journey to God in a God-less World —Paul Seungoh Chung
• Ascending towards God: Chrysostom and the Role of Virtue —Mark R. Hanson

Part Five: Philosophy

• Here I Raise my Ebenezer: The Miracle, the Event, and the Temporality of Sacred Space —Jesse D. Hill
• Reason beyond Nature: John McDowell and the Possibility of Seeing Reason within Supernatural Order —John Y. Lee
• Transcendence and Culture: Philip Rieff on Sacred Order, Social Order, and the Secular Condition —Kevin N. Flatt
• False Starts in the Pursuit of Transcendence: Michel Henry and Immanent Life as Ordinary Transcendence —Thomas Kenton Hubschmid
• Kierkegaard’s Concept of Repetition: Seeking Permanence in a Secular Age —Michael Nathan Steinmetz

VOLUME 2

Part One: Questions of Secularism and Transcendence

• Delineating the Structures of the Spiritual: Traces of Transcendence in Immanence —Christina M. Gschwandtner
• Merold Westphal on Secularism and Transcendence: An Interview —Merold Westphal
• Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence: What Have We Pursued, and Have We Caught It? —Stanley E. Porter

Part Two: The Arts

• Choosing the Transcendent Artistry of Jesus: The Nine Faces of Christ —James Tughan
• Mary’s Magnificat and its Music: From Phenomenology to Transcendence —Wendy J. Porter
• Dying, Friendship, and the Drama of Afterlife: Theological Reflections on Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius —Francis G.H. Pang
• Poetry and the Transcendent —D.S. Martin
• The Stones Cry Out: Unexpected Transcendence and Public Spectacle in Secular Spaces —David M. Csinos
• Creation Still Speaking: The Everyday Voice of the Divine in Contemporary Canadian Poetry —Deborah C. Bowen
• “Hills of Scrap Aluminum Glitter”: Liturgies of Lament and Affirmation in Contemporary Ecopoetry — Melanie C. East

Part Three: Literature

• Longing for Transcendence: Biblical Apocalyptic Literature, Marvel Comic Universe Movies, and the Modern Secular Longing for Eschatological Hope —Israel Steinmetz
• Follow the Child: A Path to Transcendence —Natasha Crozier
• Metaphor and Transcendence —Stanley E. Porter
• Industrial Realism and the Advent of Modern Fantasy: Transcendent Tensions in Victorian Literature —Christian S. Dickinson
• Christian Wiman: (Post)Secular Ways to Say God —Doug Sikkema
• “Time Cuts Down All / Both Great and Small“: Cross-Pressured Memento Mori Stories for Children —Kira Moolman Pettit
• Displacing the Father and Son in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons: Nilhilism and the Erosion of Transcendence among Millennials —Kwasi Boakye-Yiadom

Part Four: Theology

• Friendship with Jesus in a Secular Age: Thinking about the Meditation of Christ with Charles Taylor and Jürgen Moltmann —John A Vissers
• Pursuit of the Holy in a Secular World —August H. Konkel
• “Drunk with Love”: The Abrahamic Covenant, Ecstatic Experience, and World Evangelism —Merrill G. Greene
• The Sacrament and Secular-Religious Bodies: Henri de Lubac’s Ecclesial Humanism and the Pull of Pseudo-Transcendence —James R. Wood
• Christ is Communion: A Non-Transactional Approach to Divine-Human Relations and Sacramental Worship —Jonathan D. Boerger
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Nonreligious Christianity in a World Comes of Age —Duane Hix

As it can be seen, the 46 total chapters in these two volumes thoroughly discuss the relationship between transcendence and today’s age of secularism. Those interested in church and culture will surely benefit from engaging with these essays.

— David I. Yoon