In the secular culture that is emerging to dominate our world it is important to maintain religious integrity and vitality. Christianity has become one of many religions and only one source of value among others. Therefore this proposal creates a set of functional definitions for religious ideas and concerns.
Fred Campbell attended Earlham and earned a B. A. in Philosophy. At Meadville Theological School he concentrated on Christian faith and history, small group dynamics and process, and the liberal religious tradition as expressed in Unitarian Universalism.
During his first years of ministry he grappled with the challenges to religious faith in secular society. In seeking to meet the spiritual needs of each person he pushed the meaning of religious words beyond their Christian meaning. He believes that functional religious language gives secular people access to religion and religion access to people embedded in secular culture.