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While the issues regarding widespread secularization in contemporary Western culture are difficult to properly assess, it can be argued that certain prerequisites are necessary for the wellbeing of any society and, furthermore, that certain of these necessary conditions are only provided by a given civilization's major religious tradition. All societies need to perpetually engage in collective action and decision making, and as any given community faces the challenges of the future, its governing religious worldview is an indispensable source of guidance and time-honored wisdom. With this in mind, it will be argued that Western civilization is dependent upon a Judeo-Christian orientation for its ongoing vibrancy, integrity, and sustainability as a culture. When the background of shared values and norms provided by Judaism and Christianity no longer functions in any unifying capacity, society loses its sense of identity and purpose, and impoverishment in many areas of human life and endeavor is felt and observed. Something—whether it is described as value, order, meaning, community, or charity— goes missing. This diminishment will be analyzed with respect to four different Western fields of study: philosophy, literature, politics, and education.  It can be argued that certain prerequisites are necessary for the well-being of any society, and that certain of these necessary conditions are only provided by a society's major religious tradition. All societies engage in collective action and decision making, and, as any given society faces the challenges of the future, its governing religious worldview is an indispensable source of guidance and time-honored wisdom. It will be argued in the four sections of this paper that Western civilization is dependent upon a Jewish-Christian orientation for its ongoing vibrancy, integrity, and sustainability. As a corollary, when the background of shared values and norms provided by Judaism and Christianity no longer functions in any unifying capacity, the society dependent on those values and norms loses its sense of identity and purpose, and impoverishment in many areas of human life and endeavor is felt and observed. Something— whether it is described as value, order, meaning, community, or charity—goes missing. In the following, this loss will be analyzed with respect to four different areas of modern Western society. Engaging with Jurgen Habermas and some of his interlocutors, Rachel Hunt Steenblik will discuss in the first section how politics needs religion to provide the pre-political assumptions that make a successful politics possible. The second section will feature an analysis by Heidi Zameni of the ways in which the teaching of literature is adversely affected when religious understanding and religious values are excluded as tools of interpretation and assessment. In the third section, Debbie Ostorga will comment on the changing sense of purpose governing the increasingly secularized university. For centuries universities were institutions 1 Hunt Steenblik et al.: Four Views on the Consequences of Secularism

An Awareness of What Is Missing: Four Views on the Consequences of Secularism