ABSTRACT
Innovative Catholics have inherited competing worldviews, arising from the earlier struggle between the Church and the Enlightenment. Innovative Catholics remain concerned that scientistic belief might prevent encounters with the unknown and perhaps unprovable eventualities. Innovative Catholics find a second source in the historical and, seemingly, truthful accounts of Jesus of Nazareth, which have been produced by some modern biblical scholars. The difficulties which Innovative Catholics encounter around the problems of the intelligibility of God were broached to an extent by the Second Vatican Council. Innovative Catholics now find themselves sandwiched between a secular movement with its anti-religious message and the hierarchical Church determined to retain a classical religious worldview. An analysis of the ethnographic data indicates that the most favoured image of God produced by Innovative Catholics is that of presence. Innovative Catholics maintain a conviction that there is more to life than what is presented by classical and rational or scientific worldviews.
