Charles Taylor

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

London, England 2007

This book is one of the most useful to have been published in the last few years on the issue of secularism and religion. It is written by one of the leading philosophers in the Western World: Charles Taylor who is also a practising Catholic. Taylor writes in the ‘history of ideas’ tradition and explains the notion of emerging secularity. This book is important because at over 700 pages long it is one of the most complete and thorough explanations of how secularism has emerged in some Western countries. Anyone who patiently works their way through this book and then perhaps spends some more time exploring the books referenced in the notes will I am sure come away with a thorough understanding of the history of secularism.

Perhaps one of the most important points he makes at the outset is to challenge the narrative of the Western world moving from a religious perspective towards a secular perspective in which religion has very little public influence. Rather, he argues that a secular age has not done away with religion but has rather opened up a consternation of choices that are available to societies and individuals which include religious and non-religious choices. Part of this is of course about choices within the main Western religion: Christianity and this relates back to the difficulties that Christian traditions had between themselves. Christian humanism arose as a response to official religion, Protestantism arose as a response to Catholicism and the ways in which God was understood was simultaneously affected by the rise of science and scientific explanations.

Representations of ‘nature’, ‘individualism’ and ‘time’, and perhaps even ‘freedom’ as part of the arrival of modernity became axiomatic for Western societies in ways in which they had previously not been considered. The rise of science lead to disenchantment with the world and a mechanistic view towards life. These developments helped change the way in which religion was felt to be needed by some as an explanation for life and the world. All of this is explained well in the book. It is these developments that have brought us to where we are, and perhaps there is some re-examination of this narrative at present. Disenchantment has been followed by re-enchantment, the modern by the post-modern or perhaps the pre-modern, and somewhere in all of this Muslims have arrived in the West at this opportune (in the words of anti-Muslims) moment. How we move on from here is yet to be determined, but what is clear, is that we all need to be much clearer on how we have arrived at this point. This book is an excellent summary and explanation of how secularity emerged within Western countries.