A SECULAR AGEThe 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. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - deusvitae - LibraryThingAn immense, sweeping, magisterial exploration of Western civilization, primarily over the past 500 years, as a quest to answer the question: how come in 1500 everyone believed in God and took it for ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - DinadansFriend - LibraryThingA painful exacting description of the gradual displacement of a religious world with the scientific viewpoint enjoyed today. This is not easy reading, or clear. View it as an extensive conversation ... Read full review
Contents
1 | |
23 | |
Part II The Turning Point | 219 |
Part III The Nova Effect | 297 |
Part IV Narratives of Secularization | 421 |
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A. N. Wilson action ancien régime anthropocentric aspiration atheist Axial Age become Bede Griffiths belief can’t Catholic chapter Charles Péguy Christendom Christian faith church civilization common condition context cosmos counter-Enlightenment course crucial culture death defined Deism demands Descartes discipline discussion disenchantment disengaged divine doesn’t earlier élites ethic excarnation exclusive humanism experience facet fact feel force forms goal God’s higher human flourishing Ibid idea ideal identity immanent important instance involved issue kind lives meaning modes motivation move mutual nature Nietzsche norms notion one’s ordinary ourselves outlook Paris perhaps political practice reality reason Reform relation religion religious revolution sacred secular seems seen sense sexual shift social imaginary society space spiritual stance Steve Bruce Stoicism story suffering theodicy theory things tion traditional transcendent transformation turn unbelief understanding University Press violence whole