A Secular Age

In 'A Secular Age', Charles Taylor explores the transformation of Western society from a pre-modern world where belief in God was inescapable to a modern secular age where believing in God is just one option among many.

Taylor argues against the 'subtraction story' of secularization, which posits that religion has been removed from society.

Instead, he describes a complex historical process involving the Reform movement in Christianity, the rise of disciplinary society, and the emergence of exclusive humanism.

The book examines how these changes have affected the conditions of belief and unbelief, and how they have shaped modern social forms, moral orders, and spiritual experiences.