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A review by ben_smitty
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor by James K.A. Smith
5.0
Smith's summary of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age is a gift to the world, especially those who want to understand more about the secular age we live in. Taylor's book is 896 pages long, but Smith was able to condense it into a 139-page summary.
Smith does this by dividing Taylor's arguments into sections that deal with the history that lead us to our secular age, an analysis of our secular age, and how to live in our secular age. Taylor's theory can be described as a "haunting" that is taking place all around us of "transcendence," a desire for something more to life. This haunting is something that cannot and should not be ignored, since it says something about scientism's inability to box humanity into a neat little package of materialism.
With that said, the book is so much more than this. There are some pretty dense passages that went over my head, which will require a re-read. Nonetheless, Smith has made Taylor more approachable for everyone, which is something I am very thankful for.
Smith does this by dividing Taylor's arguments into sections that deal with the history that lead us to our secular age, an analysis of our secular age, and how to live in our secular age. Taylor's theory can be described as a "haunting" that is taking place all around us of "transcendence," a desire for something more to life. This haunting is something that cannot and should not be ignored, since it says something about scientism's inability to box humanity into a neat little package of materialism.
With that said, the book is so much more than this. There are some pretty dense passages that went over my head, which will require a re-read. Nonetheless, Smith has made Taylor more approachable for everyone, which is something I am very thankful for.