How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2014) is James Smith’s clear explanation of a philosopher whose work can be difficult. Taylor, a self-professed Roman Catholic and author of A Secular Age (2007), begins with the standard narrative, which argues that since 1500 God has been “subtracted” from the world, religious belief has declined, and the scientist has replaced the priest. Taylor calls this narrative “secularism,” but argues instead that “we” moderns actually live in a “secular” age, which pretends to frame human life in strictly immanent terms but is nonetheless haunted by transcendence. In other words, both belief and unbelief must, in this secular age, deal with the reality of doubt.
In Jesus or Nothing (Crossway, 2014), Dan DeWitt questions the standard “secularization” thesis too, but does so through a character named “Zach.” Zach grew up in a Christian home, but in college he realized that beyond the world was not a God but, well, Nothing. Zach is well-versed in the arguments for faith but doesn’t find them convincing. “Most days” he feels good about “a universe devoid of deity,” and “he dismisses the other days as wishful thinking.” In other words, he is just another denizen of Taylor’s secular age.
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