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.
Preface-IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface Summary
Preface Summary
The preface outlines the origins and expansion of the book, which emerged from his Gifford Lectures delivered in 1999 at Edinburgh, titled “Living in A Secular Age?” The content of those lectures form the foundation of the book’s first three parts, while the subsequent parts, 4 and 5, cover additional topics he wanted to address but felt unprepared to discuss at the time.
The book has expanded in size and scope since its inception but could have expanded further, as the process of secularization in the modern West is frequently referenced but poorly understood. Instead of presenting a continuous narrative, the preface suggests that individuals approach the book as a series of interconnected essays illuminating each other and providing context.
Taylor expresses gratitude to the Gifford Lectures Committee, various academic institutions, and individuals who supported him throughout the book’s development, particularly those who contributed to the translation work and indexing. He hopes his work will inspire others to further develop, apply, and refine his arguments.
Introduction Summary
The introduction examines what it means to live in a secular age, particularly in modern Western societies. While many people might agree that we live in a secular age, the meaning of secularity is not straightforward. The term can be different ways, and the text focuses on how the role and presence of religion in society have transformed.
A secular society is one where religion is no longer interwoven with public institutions and practices. In earlier societies, especially pre-modern times, God was present in all aspects of life, from politics to local governance and community rituals. Engaging in public life without encountering religious elements was nearly impossible back then. However, modern Western states have largely privatized religious belief, and public spaces are neutral grounds where both believers and non-believers can participate without reference to God.
He then explores a different understanding of secularity, which relates to the decline of religious belief and practice. In some regions, particularly in Western Europe, there is a noticeable trend of people turning away from organized religion, attending church less frequently, and moving toward secular identities. This decline does not necessarily correlate with an absence of belief in God; rather, it indicates a shift in how people relate to faith and religious practice.
However, the primary focus is on a third sense of secularity, which he argues is crucial to understanding contemporary society. This sense pertains to the “conditions of belief” (3) and the transformation from a world where belief in God was almost universal and unchallenged to one where belief is merely an option among many. He describes how belief in God has shifted from being an unproblematic and default position to one that requires active choice and commitment in the face of various alternative worldviews. In this context, belief in God is no longer automatic or self-evident but must be continually justified and affirmed.
Simplistic explanations of secularization suggest it is merely the result of science and reason “refuting” religion. Such explanations are lacking because they fail to account for the deeper changes in the underlying conditions of belief. Rather, secularization involves a complex transformation of lived experience, where belief and unbelief no longer rival theories but different ways of experiencing and living out one’s moral and spiritual life.
To illustrate this, the introduction describes different “kinds of lived experience” (5) related to belief and unbelief. For believers, fullness or meaning often comes from an external, transcendent source—something beyond themselves, which they receive through devotion, prayer, and a relationship with a divine being. In contrast, for modern unbelievers, the sense of fullness or purpose is often derived from within, through reason, autonomy, or an internal alignment of one’s desires and rational capacities.
The section concludes by setting the stage for his exploration of how Western societies moved from a context where belief in God was almost universal to one where belief is just one of many possible options. It emphasizes that understanding this shift requires looking at the broader transformation in the frameworks of belief and the contexts in which spiritual and moral experiences occur. This is essential for understanding the nature of our secular age.
Preface-Introduction Analysis
The opening sections set the intellectual stage for Taylor’s project: to rethink the accepted understanding of secularization in the modern West. This foregrounds the theme of The Impact of Secularization on Society. The book’s central aim is to dismantle simplistic and overly linear narratives that depict secularization merely as a decline of religion in favor of rationality, science, or progress. Instead, it shows that secularization involves a profound transformation in how belief is structured, experienced, and lived out in contemporary society.
These sections challenge the reader to reconsider what it means to live in a secular age. The goal is not just to describe a decline in religious belief or practice but to analyze the underlying conditions that have changed from when belief in God was almost inevitable to when it is one option among many. This approach shifts the focus from what people believe or do not believe to how belief itself is possible, plausible, or contested in the modern context. These conditions have shifted, highlighting The Changing Nature of Belief, and the reasons for this matter in understanding modernity.
The introductory sections reframe the entire debate about secularization. Most discussions about secularism are what Taylor calls “subtraction stories”—narratives that suggest secularism emerges when society subtracts religious belief due to modernization, scientific progress, or enlightenment. The book’s goal is to demonstrate that secularism is not just a void left by the absence of religion but a new context in which multiple beliefs, practices, and experiences coexist and interact. This context is not neutral but shaped by underlying cultural and philosophical developments, such as The Search for Meaning and Moral Order. The structure of the book reflects the belief that to understand secularization, one must look at a range of factors—historical, cultural, philosophical, and sociological.
A pluralism of worldviews characterizes modernity, each with its own “take” on reality, and this plurality reflects deeper shifts in how humans understand themselves, their place in the world, and their moral and spiritual aspirations. In this way, A Secular Age is fundamentally about the nature of modernity itself. It challenges the assumption that secularism is the endpoint of a progressive narrative in which society becomes more rational and enlightened. Secularism is not an endpoint but a new beginning—a starting point for new ways of living, thinking, and experiencing the world. The work uncovers the background conditions that make belief and unbelief possible today, recognizing that these conditions have changed dramatically since pre-modern times. Ultimately, the text is reorienting the discussion about secularization away from quantitative measures (like church attendance or religious affiliation) and toward qualitative shifts in the “social imaginary”—the ways people imagine their social existence, the kinds of spaces they inhabit, and the frameworks they use to make sense of their lives.
