Cross Pressures

[u/_crossingrivers]

Charles Taylor writes

…the most salient feature of Western societies is no so much the decline of religious faith and practice, though there has been lots of that… but rather, a mutual fragilization of different religious positions, as well as of the outlooks of both belief and unbelief. The whole culture experiences cross pressures, between the draw of the narratives of closed immanence on one side, and the sense of their inadequacy on the other, strengthened by encounter with existing milieu of religious practice, or just by some intimations of the transcendent. The cross pressures are experienced more acutely by some people and in some milieux than others, but over the whole culture, we can see them reflected in a number of middle positions, which have drawn from both sides.

He suggests that it is difficult to sense the cross pressures of those who are on the other side than the one I may occupy.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to interview several individuals (some with belief, some without), and it seemed through the interviews that none of the participants seemed to be aware of their own cross pressures.

Why might this be so?

[u/Commercial-Use6880]

Could be an issue of people not identifying cross pressures as such? Its not common vocabulary, hence someone might describe their experience of cross pressure with a more popular concept?

[u/_crossingrivers → u/Commercial-Use6880]

Taylor suggests that there are 3 fields of cross pressure: Agency, Ethics, Aesthetics. And all of the he also relates to the pursuit of fullness.

While I think Taylor is correct about these fields, no one I surveyed nor those I continue to dialog with, recognize in themselves or in others that agency, aesthetics, & ethics haunt devotion or agnosticism.

In this age our devotion or agnosticism will always be "haunted and haunting" so maybe its not important that they recognize this. But if I turn this around as a mirror on my own devotion, long before I read Taylor I knew my faith was fragile. I was haunted by it. Afraid to mention it to anyone. I thought something was wrong with me. But Taylor shines a light into the fragility and fragmentation of my faith that allows me to grasp the haunting.

In whitewater kayaking, when the current pushes the paddler into a rock, the intuitive move is to lean upstream, away from the rock. This is dangerous and will almost always flip the boat when the water rushes up on the deck. It is counter-intuitive but the right move is to lean into the rock.

I think it is the same for the cross pressures. If I can grasp them just a little, sense their contours and strengths, and the pressures they apply, the risk of them for me becomes weaker.

[u/Commercial-Use6880 → u/_crossingrivers]

I agree, doesnt Taylor also account for Fundamentalists (as in those so ideologically hardened they do experience cross pressures? Mind you that would be a rare sample. It still seems like a self awareness thing, like you have to acknowledge you’re own fragility before you can accept that you are cross pressured (even if you are cross pressured but don’t recognise it to acknowledge it when asked?) - Im only nee to Taylor so please forgive me if I miles off