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Religion's great challenge is human purpose. The current debate between religion and secularism, if it is to be resolved, depends on how this challenge is met. In the past religionists have flirted with purpose, courted it, competed with it, deprecated it, made substitutions for it, and even used it to establish the normative priority of religious systems of totality. On the whole they have not come to grips with human purpose as the central topic in the debate between religion and secularism. While they have used purpose in its holistic meaning to establish final systems of religious coherence, they have simultaneously denied the effectualness of human purpose as an effective guide to the religious life, especially on issues of ultimate concern and salvation. Because of apologetic interests and for the alleged dualism between divine and human purpose, they have never explored critically the relevance of purpose to the religious quest. By the imposition of "final purpose" on religious designs they have created undue tension and anxiety in the heart of man. Through such totalistic designs for living they made certain totalitarian claims on life that modern man is still trying to forget.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-3483-2_4

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