This seminar takes the form of reading and discussing Charles Taylor’s Templeton Prize Winning book, A Secular Age, as well as significant reviews/review essays and responses to it. The book chronicles the rise of Western (North Atlantic) secularity, signal features of which are the marginalization of religious institutions and their influence in public life.
The central feature that Taylor identifies, however, is that belief in God has become a matter of choice, one human possibility, among others. Taylor chronicles how it got this way in the North Atlantic and draws attention to what it might possibly mean for the world, as people struggle to make sense of their lives and give shape to their spiritual aspirations.
Taylor, a Quebecer and Canadian Roman Catholic author, tells a story that Christian and other religious leaders need to hear as they attempt to live faithfully and well in a secular age. We will address how Taylor’s story intersects with the experience of secularity in the Canadian West, and, in particular, British Columbia. Attention will also be given to the nuanced reception of Taylor by other faith traditions and in the growing body of literature on secularity and disenchantment.
Prerequisites: None
This class is available both in person and online via Zoom