Something New

    We feature each fortnight Nicholas Reid's reviews and comments on new and recent books.      

“THE CALLING” by  NIKI HARRE ( Auckland University Press $NZ35:00)

Niki Harre is a professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. She is an atheist and was raised as such. In 2021 she undertook a project to see what it would be like to be a secular priest. This term might puzzle, as for some people the very word “priest” could immediately sound like “church” ; but Harre notes correctly that the term “priest” has been used for thousands of years in many cultures. Harre uses the term “secular” to mean the everyday world (though interestingly, in the Catholic church a “secular priest” means a priest who works in a church in contrast with a bishop or pope, who are also priests.) Harre also notes in her preface that only 32 per cent of New Zealanders now define themselves as Christians [according to the census]. So at first she hopes to become a secular priest who will be able to replace “faith, hope and charity” [and “poverty, celibacy and obedience”] with “simplicity, hospitality and  pause” [which I take to mean meditating or thinking carefully before you act]. As a secular priest she hopes to gather people in community and preach or discuss how people could live better lives, be more thoughtful, help others and deal with sorrow… but without religion. She also notes that many atheists like Ailain de Botton are too ready to lecture people, missing the point of community.

So she aims to be a priest without religion. But she also says [ Page xii ] “The peeling of religion, we secular-only type have lost access to religious ministers whose job is to help us navigates life’s difficulties and contribute, as best we can, to the common good. The daily, difficult task of living well together – a collective project that we all contribute to whether we like it or not - is somehow ignored or considered a ‘problem’ relegated to managers or consultants. And this, I think, has allowed us to drift into the vague sense of entitlement and aloneness that taints modern life. Despite our age of plenty, something is missing – as if we are not firing on all cylinders or dealing with the issues we face head-on. so in 2021 I set out to understand what we lost when we lost religion, and if any of it could, and should, be retrieved.” And on Pg.2 she admits that in being a priest as an atheist “I now suspect that the absence of God poses a serious challenge to the secular enterprise…”

So finally – with the permission of the Auckland Anglican cathedral -  she has her first service down-stairs. She gives a sermon based on Karen Armstrong who at first aimed to be a nun but who broke from that and wrote about the need for caring people, understanding their problems, helping them and [p64] “she advocates for developing habits, both individually and collective, then turn us toward the other. The golden rule is her touch stone: treat others as you would like to be treated. This involves understanding yourself – what is it that brings me pain”…. So Niki Harre begins her teaching as a secular priest. She goes on Good Friday to the Anglican Cathedral interested in the ceremony and she lights a candle but she says it is not for God but for those in need. And so, bit by bit, she gathers a small community over the year… but is remains very small. There is some singing, the songs mainly secular ones but sometimes there is what were originally Christian songs; and being a feminist, if a song says “He” she changes it to “She”. But there always seems to be something missing. What is it? Perhaps it is ceremony. A talk and some songs and some discussion is all very well, but there seems to be little gravitas. She says she did well in presiding a “naming ceremony” – in other words a sort of baptism without the baptism. Sometimes she thinks it is hard to really get around the concept of God. And sometimes she finds that her audiences sometimes have different views and are not exactly in harmony.

Harre does have considerable compassion and is willing to hear and discuss many different points of view. In the mid of her project she is hit by something within the university where she works. Of the university she says  [pp.139] “…the similarities between the Christian church and modern universities are striking. And, as I became friends with priests and other people of faith , it sometimes seemed as if we were separated only by an accident of birth. They were born into a community that talked of God and I was not. Perhaps if I had been raised Christian I would now talk of God too. I might even be a real priest  (probably taking time away from my parish to do a PhD).” But something hits the university. Seven professors wrote a letter, published in the Listener, saying of the Maori language immersion programme that matauranga [ Maori knowledge] was not real science… and within the university, there was a verbal fire storm. Harre says there was little consideration of what had really been said. Instead, within the university people took sides, usually showing no real thought about what had been said. She spends many pages on this and it made her try to understand what each group had to say, but many most wanted to shout others down. This was a case of little empathy, little reasoning, and a loss of community…. And, unrelated to what happened in the university, in her work as a secular priest she saw in her small community that not everyone was of the same opinion. One woman said too many people were being excluded when it came to having discussions; and some were concerned that everybody became political. In spite of everything, there was still deep down a longing for ritual and community.

            In the end, she admits that she would never try he “project” again. She says [Pgs.247-248] “In retrospect, the tragic flaw of my priestly aspiration was that I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I wanted to walk though the wardrobe but never drop my identity as an atheist and materialist. I wanted to use ritual that made sense in the contemporary secular context but for that ritual to resonate with the depth that can only come from centuries of passing through human institutions. I wanted to offer consolation and guidance akin to that offered by religion, without the support and restraint of an organisation that makes religion possible. And because I was playing a game without all the cards in my hand, I only had moments of feeling a priest…”

            Just some personal comments. Although she is an atheist, Niki Harre never ridicules or talks down to Christians. Far from it. Many of the texts she examines and applauds are Christian ones; and the desire for ceremony and gravitas are very much in her mind. Although she never uses the term, it is clear that “the God-shaped-hole” is still with us. There is a yearning for some power greater than we mere human beings. I must also add that, though only 32 per cent of New Zealanders now define themselves as Christians, this does not mean that the rest of the country are fervent atheists. Rather they are indifferent or uninterested, but perhaps with a vague nostalgia for the beliefs that their grandmothers and grandfathers had. Finally, I can’t help wondering whether some hard-core atheists will be annoyed that Niki Harre has been so positive about people with faith. Altogether, I think she has worked hard in her project and tried hard to put together a community. But in the end she could not be a priest.