The Indifferent Man--Part I

UPI via Cyberbretheren ^ | 28 Dec., 2004 | Uwe Siemon-Netto

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Commentary: The indifferent man -- part 1

By Uwe Siemon-Netto UPI Religious Affairs Editor

PARIS, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Editor's note: This is the first installment of a new United Press International series on postmodern man for whom Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome, has coined a new term: "homo indifferens," the indifferent man -- indifferent to any particular religious doctrine.

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To believe that man has no need for God, said the German philosopher Max Scheler (1874-1928), amounts to "metaphysical carelessness." But this carelessness is precisely the property of postmodern man whom the Vatican's main spokesman for culture describes as "homo indifferens," as one indifferent to religious doctrine and values.

Scheler's "phenomenology of ethics" has had a significant influence on Pope John Paul II; it was the focus of the pope's second doctoral dissertation and still has a strong impact on his ministry.

At the end of a year marked by war, whose ghoulish features included videotaped beheadings of innocent people in the name of "God" that has nothing in common with the deity worshiped by Jews, Christians and, presumably, most Muslims, the occidental man's metaphysical carelessness seems particularly troubling.

For its main trait is not even militant atheism, which "recedes and no longer has a determining influence on public life," according to Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture.

Rather, for "homo indifferens," it does not actually matter if God exists, said Poupard during a theological conference in Minsk, Belarus. The prevailing attitude is, "Anyway, we don't miss him," the cardinal added in his address excerpts, which were distributed by Zenit.Org, an Internet service reporting from the Holy See.

Ten years after Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn implored the world, "Bring God back into politics," and after former Czech President Václav Havel blamed "increasing godlessness" for the world's crises, this faddish indifference to the Divine confirms the insight by Hans-Magnus Enzensberger, one of postwar Germany's most outstanding writers:

"If you throw yourself to the mercy of the trend, ... you are a poor dog indeed. There is nothing more narrow-minded than the Zeitgeist. If you only know the present time, imbecility will be your fate."

Yet this is precisely where "homo indifferens" seems to be heading. It's not that he has ceased to be a "homo religious," a religious man.

Rather, writes Peter Hahne, Germany's most popular television personality, in a scathing condemnation of his country's "fun society": "They (contemporary society) find everything super -- depending on their mood. One moment it's the Dalai Lama, then Jesus, then the Pope, then Marxism or Buddhism, then New Age or the Old Bible.

"Whatever is fashionable is considered wonderful. However, in the long run values have become scarce; they have long been sold out," said Hahne.

"Homo indifferens ... is just seeking a new and ever-changing religiosity," agreed Cardinal Poupard.

"The analysis of this phenomenon reveals a kaleidoscopic situation where anything and its opposite can occur: on the one hand, those who believe without belonging, and on the other those who belong without believing in the entire content of faith and who, above all, feel not obliged to respect the ethical dimension of faith."

A few years ago, David Whitford, a U.S. Methodist theologian, described how this moral relativism, or indifference, even affects the way young people reared in post-modernity rate Hitler: Sure, they say, what he did to the Jews was wrong from our perspective, but should he not be judged from his perspective?

This, of course, carries today's secular religion, tolerance, to its most absurd level. Tolerance can only be virtuous if the tolerant person stands himself on firm ground, lest the result would be like applauding quicksand while being swallowed up by sludge.

But tolerance supported by firm convictions is not a fashionable Western attitude to wit the fate of Italy's European Affairs minister Rocco Buttiglione whose Christian public witness on marriage and homosexuality made him ineligible for the post of European justice commissioner.

Here postmodern man's indifference to the Christian values that shaped the Old World's civilization became manifest at the highest level of its contemporary power structure.

But the need to bridge the gap between faith and culture, an endeavor for which Cardinal Poupard pleaded, is being increasingly understood, as the next installment of this series will show.

Boldly, anchorman Peter Hahne announces on his book's cover "the end of the fun society," a society mindlessly "dancing around the golden Me."

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Next installment: Real pastors needed.

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One more excellent article by Uwe Siemon-Netto.