63 pages • 2 hours read
Charles TaylorA Secular Age
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Index of Terms
Age of Authenticity
The Age of Authenticity refers to the contemporary cultural phase where personal choice and individualism are paramount. A Secular Age describes this era as one in which individuals seek to live in a way that feels true to their inner selves, often distancing themselves from traditional religious frameworks. Taylor’s concept gives a framework for how modern individuals navigate the pluralistic and secular landscape, embracing a variety of beliefs that resonate on a personal level rather than adhering to a singular, institutionalized faith.
Cross Pressures
Cross-pressures are the conflicting forces individuals experience between belief and unbelief in a secular society. This term describes the inner tensions faced by those navigating different worldviews, such as traditional faith and modern secularism or science and spirituality. These pressures are a critical feature of the secular condition, illustrating how modern people often feel pulled in multiple directions, leading to spiritual unease or ambivalence.
Immanent Frame
The immanent frame is a conceptual lens through which the modern world is understood as self-contained and explainable without recourse to the supernatural or divine. This frame is a hallmark of secular modernity, where explanations of reality are confined to naturalistic and humanistic terms. The immanent frame does not preclude belief in the transcendent but makes it one of many possible interpretations, thus fundamentally altering how individuals relate to the sacred.
Nova Effect
The Nova Effect describes the explosive diversification of spiritual and moral options in A Secular Age. The term captures the proliferation of different belief systems, spiritualities, and ways of life that have emerged as traditional religious structures have declined. This effect signifies the increasing fragmentation and pluralism of belief, where individuals live with a bewildering array of choices about making sense of their lives and the universe.
Secularization
Secularization, as discussed in A Secular Age, is not simply the decline of religion but a complex transformation of societal conditions that change how belief is understood and practiced. The book differentiates between three senses of secularization: the removal of religion from public spaces, the decline in religious belief and practice, and the shift in the conditions of belief that make faith one option among many. This multifaceted approach provides a framework to grasp how Western society has evolved from a religious to a more secular orientation.
