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Our world is ideologically fragmented, and the range of positions, multiplied by the attractions of expressive individualism, is growing. There are strong incentives to remain within the bounds of the human domain, or at least not to bother exploring beyond it. The level of understanding of some of the great languages of transcendence is declining; in this respect, massive unlearning is taking place. The individual pursuit of happiness as defined by consumer culture still absorbs much of our time and energy, or else the threat of being shut out of this pursuit through poverty, unemployment, incapacity galvanizes all our efforts.
All this is true, and yet the sense that there is something more presses in. Great numbers of people feel it-in moments of reflection about their life, in moments of relaxation in nature, in moments of bereavement and loss, and quite wildly and unpredictably. Our age is very far from settling into a comfortable unbelief. Although many individuals do so, and more still seem to on the outside, the unrest continues to surface. Could it ever be otherwise?
The secular age is schizophrenic, or better, deeply cross-pressured.
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