[Buddha-l] secular religion

[curt]

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Friday 25 August 2006 16:57, curt wrote:
>
>   
>> There is no doubt that secularism arose as a rejection of
>> religion, pure and simple.
>>     
>
> That is not quite the case. As I mentioned earlier, the first 
> occurrence of the word "secular" was in the Catholic church. It 
> arose not as a rejection of anything, but as a way of supplementing 
> what already existed and was expected to continue existing. Secular 
> priests were those who took on pastoral duties. They are still so 
> called. And there are many religious organizations around today who 
> see a great deal of value of being secular, in the sense of being 
> engaged in the world as opposed to withdrawing from the world.
>
>
>   
OK - you've got a point there. And worse yet (for me) - the point you 
are making may be especially applicable to Buddhism. I say that because 
the idea of "withdrawing from the world" is more deeply embedded in 
Buddhism, in my opinion, than it is in Christianity - since Christianity 
did not originally have any kind of "monasticism".

- Curt