The thought process behind the first is that all good art reflects something of the human condition, or it's not art, and in doing so has spiritual content. A friend of mine who is a priest said that to me once.
In this case he was defining secular to mean "devoid of spiritual significance," rather than "non-sectarian" or "non-religious." It is a more expansive understanding of the word than most people use.
This topic came up around my house in the context of discussing "Christian" art, a discussion of which came up after my iTunes played "Kyrie," by Mr. Mister. "Kyrie" is an explicitly religious song which had mainstream popularity -- and it is my view that that was not because so many people clamor to hear Christian music, as that the religious content was in Greek.
"Kyrie" is an explicitly religious song which had mainstream popularity -- and it is my view that that was not because so many people clamor to hear Christian music, as that the religious content was in Greek.
Same idea with "Destination Eschaton" by the Shamen, or most anything from the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack by Neil Diamond. I think most people simply didn't recognize the "religious" content. OTOH, I actually used the soundtrack to Jonathan in the opposite way--because it was "Christian" music, my folks didn't question it at all, which allowed me to access the "mystical" content of it without trouble from them.
Interestingly, I interpreted 'Destination Eschaton' as coming from the non-religious direction of extropianism. Whether this makes it spiritual or not, I don't know.
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In this case he was defining secular to mean "devoid of spiritual significance," rather than "non-sectarian" or "non-religious." It is a more expansive understanding of the word than most people use.
This topic came up around my house in the context of discussing "Christian" art, a discussion of which came up after my iTunes played "Kyrie," by Mr. Mister. "Kyrie" is an explicitly religious song which had mainstream popularity -- and it is my view that that was not because so many people clamor to hear Christian music, as that the religious content was in Greek.
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Same idea with "Destination Eschaton" by the Shamen, or most anything from the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack by Neil Diamond. I think most people simply didn't recognize the "religious" content. OTOH, I actually used the soundtrack to Jonathan in the opposite way--because it was "Christian" music, my folks didn't question it at all, which allowed me to access the "mystical" content of it without trouble from them.
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