(i said I was going blog light, but this just popped out while I was working on something else. that’s why it’s so rough…)
There is no space of cultural engagement, no place of overlapping interests, no room in the public square for the Church. The place of intersection between Church and culture is a myth. There is only Time. The Church is in another Time. Our culture’s time is Now, eternal present of enjoyment, fulfillment, and pleasure that must be perpetuated, or the eternal present of pain, lack, and dissatisfaction which must be escaped. But the Church springs from the past of Christ giving of his Body and races toward the future of being gathering into his Body; the past of the Last Supper to the future of the Wedding Banquet.
In this other Time, the Church journeys to a different rhythm, entering and exiting cultural artifacts and situation, oriented toward the real presence of past and future. And b/c of this it is only possible for the Church to remain truly in the present.
There are no overlapping spaces between Church and State, or Church and University. The Church marches through those spaces according to its own trajectory, gathering all that is good, true, and beautiful, while scattering all evils, lies, and deformity.