Draft

Secular is from the Latin meaning "the times." It is often used in the sense of understanding and accepting "things"--you know, like reality--as they are and without reference to "the transcendent." Unfortunately it is a term that is often misused, misunderstood, and even maligned. Too bad. It is a neutral term. It is a helpful term.

Can we restore the word "secular" to its rightful place? That would include seeing it as an ally to the transcendent--i.e. God. God made the times and God is intimately connected to the times, from a faith-based perspective of course. So no more dichotomy between the times and the transcendent. Both can and should flow together philosophically and practically. Well, at least from a faith-based perspective.

But maybe we can argue that the transcedent should fit under the covering of the times? In which case the trascendent might be seen as an artifact, a creation, and something which does not relate to the ultimate reality of the secular.

And maybe at the end of the epistemological day it is the times versus the transcendent afterall. Competing worldviews?

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