The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Catechesis in Contemporary Culture: Relativism

Authored by Brian Pizzalato in Issue #29.1 of The Sower
This new series examines key features of contemporary culture that characterize the ‘field’ into which the Word is sown by catechists today. There is no such thing as truth!’ ‘That may be wrong to you, but it’s right for me!’ ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!’ We have all heard these maxims in some form or another. They express a philosophical position by which many people direct their lives: relativism. In a homily given on Monday 18 April 2005 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of ‘the dictatorship of relativism’. Catechizing persons immersed in a culture of relativism is one of the most difficult tasks of catechesis in our time.

The rest of this online article is available for current subscribers.

Start your subscription today!


This article is from The Sower and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of Maryvale Institute. Contact [email protected]

Articles from the Most Recent Issue

Lessons Lourdes Offers to Evangelists and Catechists
By Barbara Davies
Many were the attempts made in Europe during the nineteenth century to redefine and refashion human existence. Significantly, over the same period there were three major apparitions in which Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, was present: Rue du Bac in Paris, France (1830); Lourdes, France (1858); and Knock, Ireland (1879). Taken together, these offer... Read more
Attaching to Mary: The Gesture of Pilgrimage
By Brad Bursa
I come here often. Sometimes I come in gratitude. Other times I come here to beg. I come alone. I come with my wife and our kids. Growing up, it took thirty minutes to get here. Back country roads. Flat. Everything level and straight. Fields speckled with the occasional woods, a barn, a farmhouse. It was practically in my backyard. But then I... Read more
Blessed Is She Who Believed: Mary’s Pastoral Significance for University Students
By Allison Fitzgerald
In many depictions of the annunciation, Mary is pictured as having been interrupted by the angel Gabriel in the midst of study. Whether she has a book open in her lap or tossed aside, a scroll in her hand or on a nearby stand, it is clear that, before this event, she was reading. Art historians have proposed interesting cultural interpretations of... Read more

Pages

Watch Tutorial Videos

We've put together several quick and easy tutorial videos to show you how to use this website.

Watch Now