A Secular Age

“Every person, and every society, lives with or by some conception(s) of what human flourishing is: what constitutes a fulfilled life? what makes life really worth living? What would we most admire people for?”

Taylor uses rhetorical questions to appeal to human concerns and emotions. This excerpt also employs anaphora, with “what” beginning each clause, creating a rhythmic emphasis reinforcing the contemplative tone. There is also subtle didacticism at play, where the text instructs by encouraging reflection on existential themes such as purpose, virtue, and fulfillment. The passage also aligns with allegory by implicitly suggesting that the search for human flourishing can represent The Search for Meaning and Moral Order within secular and religious frameworks.

“But today, for instance, when a naturalistic materialism is not only on offer, but presents itself as the only view compatible with the most prestigious institution of the modern world, viz., science; it is quite conceivable that one’s doubts about one’s own faith, about one’s ability to be transformed, or one’s sense of how one’s own faith is indeed, childish and inadequate, could mesh with this powerful ideology, and send one off along the path of unbelief, even though with regret and nostalgia.”

There is a notable use of anaphora in the repetition of “one’s” to emphasize personal doubt and struggle. This repetition creates a rhythm that mirrors the internal conflict of an individual wrestling with faith and the temptation of adopting a dominant ideological framework. The phrase “with regret and nostalgia” employs pathos, evoking a sense of loss and emotional turmoil accompanying the potential abandonment of faith. The text utilizes irony in how a belief in the transformative power of faith goes against a modern ideology that could itself lead to transformation—toward unbelief.

“In the enchanted world of 500 years ago, a clear line between the physical and the moral wasn’t drawn. […] Things and agencies which are clearly extra-human could alter or shape our spiritual and emotional condition, and not just our physical state (and hence mediately our spiritual or emotional condition), but both together in one act. These agencies didn’t simply operate from outside the “mind”, they helped to constitute us emotionally and spiritually.”

Juxtaposition contrasts the “enchanted world of 500 years ago” with the implied disenchanted modern world. This juxtaposition contrasts the fluidity between physical and spiritual realms in the past versus the compartmentalized modern understanding. There is also ambiguity in describing how “agencies... helped to constitute us emotionally and spiritually,” inviting interpretations regarding how such forces influenced human existence and consciousness. Describing “agencies” as both affecting and constituting people points to a symbolic interpretation of external forces as literal and metaphorical in shaping life.

“Yet we can’t do without structure altogether. We need to tack back and forth between codes and their limitation, seeking the better society, without ever falling into the illusion that we might leap out of this tension of opposites into pure anti-structure, which could reign alone, a purified non-code, forever.”

This passage employs an antithesis between “codes and their limitation” and “pure anti-structure.” This tension describes a dichotomy in society’s attempts to balance order and freedom. The phrase “tack back and forth” is a metaphor for navigating between these extremes, implying a continuous and necessary movement rather than a static position. The mention of “pure anti-structure” as an “illusion” introduces a paradox, implying that the desire to escape structured systems entirely would only lead to another form of structure or control. This highlights the book’s focus on The Changing Nature of Belief.

“The first effect of disenchantment was not to do away with demons, let us remember. Since in the radical form, it eschewed all church magic, it branded all magic as black. Everything of this sort now belonged to the devil, and all sorcerers, cunning women, healers, etc., were now in danger of being branded as confederates of the devil.”

The term “disenchantment” is a metaphor for the rationalization and secularization of society, a shift from a world saturated with spiritual and supernatural forces to one governed by reason and science. The repetition of “branded” and “now” creates an anaphora that brings attention to the shift in perception and societal values. What was once accepted or tolerated became vilified under a new rationalist regime. There is a symbolic use of “black” to represent evil and corruption, a common color symbolism that conveys the moral dichotomy created in this new worldview.

“It suffices that they take more and more interest in nature-for-its-own-sake, and gradually this will grow, while the reference to the divine atrophies. Until finally, they are modern exclusive humanists, or at least secularists. Of course, this story is underlain by the sense that this terminus is the obviously correct one; that being interested in nature without external reference, or with reference only to us humans, is the only sensible stance.”

The metaphor “atrophies” describes the decline of divine reference. This word choice evokes the image of a muscle weakening from disuse, implying that the divine is not actively engaged or considered, leading to its gradual disappearance. The progression from the interest in “nature-for-its-own-sake” to becoming “modern exclusive humanists” or “secularists” follows a logical sequence in a didactic tone, instructing on a perceived inevitable cultural development. The claim that “this terminus is the obviously correct one” asserts that the secularist approach is self-evidently rational and inevitable.

“Later on, psychological theories will arise which consecrate this view. The human being is a bundle of habits, stamped in to a tabula rasa; there is no limit to reform.”

Taylor utilizes analogy by comparing humans to a “bundle of habits” and “a tabula rasa.” These analogies communicate that experiences and external inputs shape human behavior and personality, like impressions on a blank slate. The phrase “there is no limit to reform” suggests hyperbole, amplifying the notion that human nature is infinitely malleable and capable of being reshaped. This conveys optimism about the potential for social and individual transformation, a view aligned with certain modernist ideals of progress and improvement.

“He is not only not ‘got at’ by demons and spirits; he is also utterly unmoved by the aura of desire. In a mechanistic universe, and in a field of functionally understood passions, there is no more ontological room for such an aura…It is just a disturbing, supercharged feeling, which somehow grips us until we can come to our senses, and take on our full, buffered identity.”

There is contrast between a person who is “utterly unmoved by the aura of desire” and the suggestion that this aura is “a disturbing, supercharged feeling.” The language reflects a dichotomy between pre-modern beliefs in spirits and a modern, secular conception of identity, reducing emotions to psychological phenomena that one can master or rationalize away.

“Now I think this kind of objection is based on a false dichotomy, that between ‘ideas’ and ‘material factors’ as rival causal agencies. But in fact, what we see in human history is ranges of human practices which are both at once, that is, ‘material’ practices carried out by human beings in space and time, and very often coercively maintained, and at the same time, self-conceptions, modes of understanding.”

Here, Taylor employs juxtaposition by framing “ideas” and “material factors” as coexistent and interactive. The term “coercively maintained” further implies connotation—invoking power dynamics and force behind these practices, hinting at underlying struggles and social complexities that shape historical developments.

“But an important point is that, once again as with ‘scientific’ proofs of atheism, it is not the cast-iron intellectual reasoning which convinces, but the relief of revolt.”

The metaphor “cast-iron intellectual reasoning” symbolizes solid, unbreakable arguments. However, there is an ironic twist in asserting that it is not formidable reasoning that persuades but rather the emotional or psychological satisfaction derived from “the relief of revolt.” This contends a paradox in belief and persuasion—where the strength of intellectual arguments may be less compelling than the catharsis found in rejecting established norms or authority.

“For instance, some people sense a terrible flatness in the everyday, and this experience has been identified particularly with commercial, industrial, or consumer society. They feel emptiness of the repeated, accelerating cycle of desire and fulfillment in consumer culture; the cardboard quality of bright supermarkets, or neat row housing in a clean suburb; the ugliness of slag heaps, or an aging industrial townscape.”

The description of “slag heaps” and “an aging industrial townscape” employs connotation to evoke decay, pollution, and the bleakness of industrial environments, further emphasizing the moral and aesthetic critique of modern, commercialized spaces. This portrayal aligns with Taylor’s broader allegory of modern life as spiritually barren, marked by material excess but emotional and existential paucity, a mark of The Impact of Secularization on Society.

“This is an important component; scientific discovery did indeed play a salient, even decisive, role in the change-over. My problem with this story is that it tells how one theory displaced another; whereas what I’m interested in is how our sense of things, our cosmic imaginary, in other words, our whole background understanding and feel of the world has been transformed.”

This contrast emphasizes a superficial understanding of historical shifts and a more “profound” transformation of the “background understanding” that defines people’s worldview. “Cosmic imaginary” is a metaphor that encapsulates the collective mental and emotional framework through which humans perceive and interpret the universe. The term “whole background understanding” reinforces the concept of a foundational and implicit shift in perception beyond intellectual changes to a more comprehensive existential transformation.

“A race of humans has arisen which has managed to experience its world entirely as immanent.”

Taylor uses hyperbole to suggest the totality and uniqueness of a shift in human consciousness, where people have come to see the world purely in terms of immanence—meaning without recourse to the transcendent or supernatural. This wording suggests a dichotomy between the transcendent and the immanent, with the latter gaining dominance in modernity.

“It is not that modern forms of humanism or faith are unconnected to ideals of order. On the contrary. But they are now connected to the same one. The modern ideal has triumphed. We are all partisans of human rights.”

The phrase “The modern ideal has triumphed” personifies by attributing a victory to an abstract concept. The statement, “We are all partisans of human rights,” uses collective voice to imply a universal consensus or commonality among modern individuals, suggesting that regardless of varying beliefs or faiths, there is a shared commitment to the same fundamental principles.

“Everyone senses that something has changed. Often this is experienced as loss, break-up. A majority of Americans believe that communities are eroding, families, neighbourhoods, even the polity; they sense that people are less willing to participate, to do their bit; and they are less trusting of others.”

The phrases “loss, break-up” and “communities are eroding” use metaphor to describe abstract social decay in concrete terms, evoking imagery of physical disintegration to convey a breakdown in social cohesion and trust. This portrayal of a declining social fabric introduces a tone of nostalgia and lament, reflecting a longing for a more connected past.

“We might even say that the depths which were previously located in the cosmos, the enchanted world, are now more readily placed within. Where earlier people spoke of possession by evil spirits, we think of mental illness.”

Juxtaposition contrasts past beliefs with modern psychological interpretations of human experience. The phrase “depths which were previously located in the cosmos” is a metaphor for spiritual mysteries once projected onto the universe but now understood as part of the human psyche. This shift highlights the movement from an outward, cosmological understanding of good and evil to an inward, psychological one.

“The buffered self feels invulnerable before the world of spirits and magic forces, which still can haunt us in our dreams, particularly those of childhood. Objectification of the world gives a sense of power, and control, which is intensified by every victory of instrumental reason.”

Here is a metaphor for the modern, rational, and insulated individual who feels protected from supernatural influences. The word “haunt” introduces personification by attributing an active, unsettling role to the “world of spirits and magic forces,” implying that while modern rationality may dismiss these as unreal, they persist in the subconscious, particularly in formative years. The “victory of instrumental reason” employs metaphor and irony; while “victory” suggests triumph and achievement, the context hints at the paradoxical loss of more mystical connections to the world. This suggests a tension between a sense of control and the lingering, uncontrollable forces of the unconscious.

“This presents materialism as the view of courageous adults, who are ready to resist the comforting illusions of earlier metaphysical and religious beliefs, in order to grasp the reality of an indifferent universe. Now this take is linked to a story, that of our rising to the point where we become capable of identifying, and then resisting these earlier illusions.”

Taylor uses irony in presenting materialism as a stance of “courageous adults” while describing metaphysical beliefs as “comforting illusions.” “Illusions” carries a pejorative connotation, implying religious beliefs are delusions that people must overcome. This language frames materialism as a narrative of progress, where maturity and enlightenment are the same as embracing a secular view of the universe.

“And this is, of course, also the form of the Nietzschean critique of Christianity: you think you are renouncing out of love, but in fact your motives are a witch’s brew concocted of fear, envy, resentment and hatred for the powerful, beautiful and successful.”

Describing motives as a “witch’s brew” is a metaphor for something mixed with malice and deception, a symbol of treachery and malevolence, evoking a sense of hidden malice. The contrasting phrases “renouncing out of love” and “concocted of fear, envy, resentment, and hatred” create an antithesis that implies irony, as what is perceived as a moral or selfless act is driven by darker, more selfish impulses.

“We’re perfectly all right as we are, as ‘natural’ beings. So the dignity of ordinary, ‘natural’ existence is even further enhanced. This ought to have liberated us from what were recognized frequently as the fruits of sin: impotence, division, anguish, spleen, melancholy, emptiness, incapacity, paralyzing gloom, acedia, etc. But in fact these abound.”

There is irony in the assertion that “natural” existence, free from religious or metaphysical constraints, should lead to liberation from negative states traditionally associated with sin. The list of negative states emphasizes the contradiction that these conditions persist despite this supposed liberation, highlighting The Impact of Secularization on Society. This paradoxical outcome suggests a critique of modern claims to liberation through secular existence, implying that these negative conditions are still prevalent.

“From another angle: casting off religion was meant to free us, give us our full dignity of agents; throwing off the tutelage of religion, hence of the church, hence of the clergy. But now we are forced to go to new experts, therapists, doctors, who exercise the kind of control that is appropriate over blind and compulsive mechanisms; who may even be administering drugs to us.”

Again, there is clear use of irony in how the supposed liberation from religious authority has led to a different form of dependence on modern “experts, therapists, doctors.” The repetition of “hence” creates a parallel structure that emphasizes the logical progression from rejecting religious tutelage to emerging secular authorities. The absence of conjunctions in the series “experts, therapists, doctors” is an example of asyndeton aimed to emphasize the inescapable nature of these experts in the modern world.

“The post-modern writers themselves are making use of the same trope in declaring the reign of narrative ended: ONCE we were into grand stories, but NOW we have realized their emptiness and we proceed to the next stage. This is a familiar refrain.”

The capitalized “ONCE” and “NOW” contrast the shift from belief in “grand stories” to a postmodern skepticism of such narratives. The phrase “reign of narrative ended” uses metaphor to describe a perceived decline or death of overarching stories that once gave meaning and order to human experience. By calling it a “familiar refrain,” there is an implicit cliché critique, suggesting that even the declaration of the end of grand narratives has become predictable and formulaic, mirroring the very structures it seeks to move beyond.

“The secular age is schizophrenic, or better, deeply cross-pressured. People seem at a safe distance from religion; and yet they are very moved to know that there are dedicated believers, like Mother Teresa.”

The idea that people desire “a safe distance from religion” but are “very moved to know that there are dedicated believers” reveals a paradox in the complexity of modern secular attitudes, where skepticism and fascination with religious authenticity coexist uneasily. This highlights the theme of The Search for Meaning and Moral Order in the text.