Religion doesn’t get a good rap these days. In fact, it’s public reputation is so bad that to some respondents, it just doesn’t have a place in “public life” at all.
This is odd, considering its place in public life.
Take for example the public services that are necessary to our way of life (christenings, confirmations, funerals, etc.), and you’ll get my point. The largesse of statecraft, and royalty, is also only brought down to our level by its religious aspect, otherwise it wouldn’t be understood at all.
This is a fact of life right now, otherwise we would be atheists, indeed.
Take for example St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, pictured below. It’s a genial old fellow of a building, and protrudes boldly out from its towering height. Or at least, in times past it might have seemed more fantastic than it does today, in its quaint abode.
The point is that these have existed before and exist today to be servants of a purpose. Mostly, we now view those purposes to be our own, as before but with a lot less enthusiasm about it.
By it, I mean the religious aspect of saying the vows – secular and sacred – and meaning all of it (this is important too, in religion).
Yes, the use of these buildings is low, but meaningfully they capture the spirit of the age, still.
It’s not necessarily a top hat and religious dress type of set up, but it makes sense to find meaning and belonging if you want to. We all do this at some point in our lives, unless we’re atheists, or we’ve found a better place to do it.
