https://www.academia.edu/145585195/The_Future_of_the_Western_Belief_System
PDF File: The Future of the Western Belief System
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 8670368664
Abstract
The future of the Western belief system is currently being forged at the intersection of liberal Christian reform and a Post-Christian non-realist stance. This intellectual evolution marks a shift from a dogmatic, God-centred worldview toward a human-centered worldview where humanity assumes the role of the final judge of all things. Liberal Christianity attempts to rehabilitate traditional faith through historical-critical methods and philosophical compatibility, arguing that religious moral intuitions remain essential for secular reason. In contrast, the Post-Christian stance, epitomized by Don Cupitt’s non-realism, views God as a purely ideal symbol or a “ghostly memory” of the “via negativa,” prioritizing “solar ethics” and “co-humanity” as substitutes for traditional dogma. Central to this comparison is Spiral Historiography, which suggests that these movements are not a linear decline but a cyclical process of learning from past intellectual errors to reach a Balanced and Comprehensive worldview. Ultimately, the future of Western belief relies on “truth and truthfulness” over the “Cartesian Anxiety” for absolute certainty.

Featured Image: Satellite Mapping Image of West End, and intellectually-related areas, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The end of old imagined The West.

Neville Buch
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