A Secular Age
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A Secular Age
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Narrated by:
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Dennis Holland
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Written by:
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Charles Taylor
About this listen
What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
Taylor, long one of our most insightful thinkers on such questions, offers a historical perspective. He examines the development in "Western Christendom" of those aspects of modernity which we call secular. What he describes is in fact not a single, continuous transformation, but a series of new departures, in which earlier forms of religious life have been dissolved or destabilized and new ones have been created.
As we see here, today's secular world is characterized not by an absence of religion - although in some societies religious belief and practice have markedly declined - but rather by the continuing multiplication of new options, religious, spiritual, and anti-religious, which individuals and groups seize on in order to make sense of their lives and give shape to their spiritual aspirations.
What this means for the world - including the new forms of collective religious life it encourages, with their tendency to a mass mobilization that breeds violence - is what Charles Taylor grapples with, in a book as timely as it is timeless.
©2007 Charles Taylor (P)2014 Audible Inc.What listeners say about A Secular Age
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jonny
- 2024-08-30
An enlightening analysis
This book touched on so many tensions I've never put words to when it comes to belief and unbelief. I'm no academic, so I will probably get a physical copy (there's a lot of dense vocabulary that is better absorbed by reading it in my opinion).
The reader was good, except I must note that his french pronunciation was not usually good. There is more quoting in french than I expected, and I couldn't follow his pronunciation, which was disappointing cause I love french.
Anyways, other than that, a very deep book, worth it!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-10-17
The best historical account on secularization
Charles Taylor will explain the history of secularization in detail that has never been given before. His original take traces it back to the reformation and the gradual transformation of the phenomenonal world which moved from a "porous self" to the modern "buffer self" that even most religious folks identify with.
Dr.Taylor maybe a practicing catholic but his critique of the moderns takes honest digs a the faithful and atheists alike.
I love this book but my goodness there is a lot of recursion and you may feel like you have listened to some parts of the book already. However by the time you are finished you will find yourself holding a very nuanced view on the faithful, the immenent and the cross-pressured worldviews.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joshua Fitz-Morris
- 2023-08-11
Unbearable pronunciation of foreign languages
I like this narrator, except when he attempts to read French/ German. It’s incomprehensible and so, so painful to listen to. Other than that, this audio is good
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gengis Coutou
- 2018-10-27
A book with foreign languages
Hey guys
I speak French German and English but the reader only excels in English which makes the reading of other languages impossible to understand
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 2023-11-19
Canonical book, even reading
The book is essential for understanding the transformation of social and political thought since the middle ages. The reading is highly listenable.
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