Charles Taylor A Secular Age ISBN 13: 9780674026766

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9780674026766: A Secular Age
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What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we--in the West, at least--largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean--of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others. Taylor, long one of our most insightful thinkers on such questions, offers a historical perspective. He examines the development in "Western Christendom" of those aspects of modernity which we call secular. What he describes is in fact not a single, continuous transformation, but a series of new departures, in which earlier forms of religious life have been dissolved or destabilized and new ones have been created. As we see here, today's secular world is characterized not by an absence of religion--although in some societies religious belief and practice have markedly declined--but rather by the continuing multiplication of new options, religious, spiritual, and anti-religious, which individuals and groups seize on in order to make sense of their lives and give shape to their spiritual aspirations. What this means for the world--including the new forms of collective religious life it encourages, with their tendency to a mass mobilization that breeds violence--is what Charles Taylor grapples with, in a book as timely as it is timeless.

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Review:
In A Secular Age, philosopher Charles Taylor takes on the broad phenomenon of secularization in its full complexity... [A] voluminous, impressively researched and often fascinating social and intellectual history...Taylor's account encompasses art, literature, science, fashion, private life--all those human activities that have been sometimes more, sometimes less affected by religion over the last five centuries.--Jack Miles"Los Angeles Times" (09/16/2007)

A Secular Age is a work of stupendous breadth and erudition.--John Patrick Diggins"New York Times Book Review" (12/16/2007)

Taylor is arguably the most interesting and important philosopher writing in English today... What makes Taylor so important? Over more than 40 years, four large books, four or five slimmer essays and several volumes of articles, he has worked out a distinctive network of arguments and an exceptionally rich analysis of the modern self and its values--an analysis that reveals us to be altogether deeper and more interesting, but also less self-aware, than we tend to suppose... A Secular Age sets out to offer a richer characterization of secularization and the nature of contemporary belief, both religious and skeptical... Taylor writes brilliantly about the new social forms--the nation state, the market economy, the charitable enterprise--and the ideals of altruism and public service that have emerged with them... A Secular Age is effectively a polemic against dogmatic atheism... It is full of insights, and many of its component parts--notably Taylor's discussion of the 'pressures' that make a settled view on the big ontological questions hard to sustain--are as good as anything by this magnificent philosopher.--Ben Rogers"Prospect" (02/01/2008)

It is, simply, the most comprehensive account of the process and meaning of secularization... Taylor's depiction of the past two centuries is rich with insights and subtle analyses... Familiarity with Taylor's book is now the entry ticket for any serious discussion of secularization.--Peter Steinfels"Commonweal" (05/09/2008)

Charles Taylor's A Secular Age offers a uniquely rich historical and philosophical overview of how we came to take a disenchanted world for granted--quietly inviting us to reflect that if disenchantment and the absence of the divine were learned habits of mind, they might not necessarily be the self-evidently rational truths so many think they are.--Rowan Williams"Times Literary Supplement" (11/26/2008)

A Secular Age offers an invaluable map of how the modern religious-secular divide came into being.--Andrew Koppelman"Dissent" (12/01/2008)

Grapples with the Christian-secular relationship, and with admirable nuance (unlike most theology).--Theo Hobson"The Tablet" (12/07/2013)

Taylor's book is a major and highly original contribution to the debates on secularization that have been ongoing for the past century. There is no book remotely like it.--Alasdair MacIntyre

This is Charles Taylor's breakthrough book, a book of really major importance, because he succeeds in recasting the whole debate about secularism. This is one of the most important books written in my lifetime. I am tempted to say the most important book, but that may just express the spell the book has cast over me at the moment.--Robert N. Bellah

If the author had accomplished nothing more than a survey of the voluminous body of 'secularization theory, ' he would have done something valuable. But, although Taylor clearly articulates his disdain for the view that modernity ineluctably led to the death of God, he goes far beyond a literature review... In addition to its conceptual value, this study is notable for its lucidity. Taylor has translated complex philosophical theories into language that any educated reader will be able to follow, yet he has not sacrificed an iota of sophistication or nuance. A magisterial book.-- (06/15/2007)
Review:
In a determinedly brilliant new book, Charles Taylor challenges the `subtraction theory' of secularisation

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  • PublisherHarvard University Press
  • Publication date2007
  • ISBN 10 0674026764
  • ISBN 13 9780674026766
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages896
  • Rating

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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we--in the West, at least--largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean--of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.Taylor, long one of our most insightful thinkers on such questions, offers a historical perspective. He examines the development in "Western Christendom" of those aspects of modernity which we call secular. What he describes is in fact not a single, continuous transformation, but a series of new departures, in which earlier forms of religious life have been dissolved or destabilized and new ones have been created. As we see here, today's secular world is characterized not by an absence of religion--although in some societies religious belief and practice have markedly declined--but rather by the continuing multiplication of new options, religious, spiritual, and anti-religious, which individuals and groups seize on in order to make sense of their lives and give shape to their spiritual aspirations.What this means for the world--including the new forms of collective religious life it encourages, with their tendency to a mass mobilization that breeds violence--is what Charles Taylor grapples with, in a book as timely as it is timeless. The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780674026766

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