Charles Taylor And Secularization Theory

Charles Taylor and Secularization TheoryCharles Taylor achieved remarkable accomplishments which involve political philosophy, moral philosophy, analytical philosophy and philosophy of religion, while he is an expert in the history of Western thought and Hegel’s philosophy. In his studies, there is a basic concern, that is, by examining the evolvement of modern Western thought, to understand the phenomenon of spirit in a so-called secular age. In this study, secularization is an extremely important question, which is the key connected the Christian age and the secular age.In Preface, I will make a general description about the spirit of secular age, and gives my thesis in this research.In Chapter One, I will clarify the "secularization theory". "Classical secularization theory" has its deficiency for a long time. It has been negated by "post-secularization theories", which include "religious economies model","neo-secularization theory" and "multiple religious modernities". These new theories deny the classical theory, or supplement it, or use it in a limited field. Charles Taylor, as a master of these theories, returns to the basic concern of secularization on a new level.In Chapter Two, I will define the concept of "secularization" to limit the scope of the issue. Firstly, I will discuss the concepts of "secular" and "profane". "Secular" is a neutral concept of time, but "profane" is a concept of space with the oppositional emotion to religion. Then I will investigate the history and the present status of "secularism", and point out the prejudice to religion cames mainly from it. After that, I will explore the history of "secularization", which began as a neutral description of social conditions, and later meant corruption in the world of religion as well as progress in unreligious world. Protestantism is responsible for secularization. In the process of opposing Catholic, Protestantism reduced the relation with God to the only way, Grace. The only way lead man to a crisis losing the contact with God. Finally, I will trace the roots of secularization in Bible. In the Old Testament, the roots include "disenchantment of the world","unique individuals" and "the transcendentalization of God". In the New Testament the roots are the confirmations of secular world and history. In Chapter Three, I will discuss the essence of secularization, that is the negation of the divine order which related with God. This negation includes three major shifts: the first one is the disenchantment of the world. In ancient societies, the meaning is outside the human beings and the self is porous-self who naturaly belongs to community. In a secular age, the meaning is inside the human mind and the self is buffered-self who constitute community by recognition. The second shift is the collapse of anti-structure. In the ancient society, there was an anti-structure under the social sructure, but they were all vest in divine order, so they were harmonious. But in the modern society, anti-structure is oppressed, which manifested in the opposition between classes. The third shift is the disappearance of higher-times which is the sacred time opposes to secular-time.There are three kinds of higher-times, "the Idea of Platonic philosophy", "the God of Christianity" and "the time of origins". The time in modern society is homogeneous which denies the sacred time over the secular time.In Chapter Four, I will discuss the consequences of secularization. At the begining, I will give a general description of ordinary life in secular age. The ordinary life is fully affirmed in this age, while the higher life is denied. But people are often dissatisfied with the lack of higher objects. Then I will recount the consequences of secularization in three areas:the first one is the area of politics. Ancient politics based on a nation’s cultures and religions. But modern politics abandoned these bases and pursued rationality. This is the philosophization of politics. The econd area is the public spaces. I will mainly argue three concepts which are "disembedding", "trust" and "discipline". The organization of public life becomes more professional and rational, which can be separated from the specific context. This attributes to sets of expert systems. These systems are neutral, and accepted by poeple through discipline. The third area is the conditions of individual belief. That means the reconstruction of moral order in the modern age. Secularization denies the sacred order and the hypergoods. However, the meaning of life must be considered in moral framework which is guided by hypergoods, because the ordinary good has no capacity of constructing such a framework.In Chapter Five, I will analyze the crisis of identity. Identity is a modern event resulted from the breaking of traditional moral orders. Due to the inwardness of self-understanding, both moral sources and moral orders are restricted within mind. The inwardness of self-understanding has a long story, from Polat’s "self-mastery", to Augustine’s "interiore homine", to Descartes’s "disengaged reason", to Locke’s "punctual self", finally, to Romanticism who opposed rational self, and explored the "inner nature" of self.In Chapter Six, I wil expound the states of mind in a secular age. Modernity has three malaises:individualism, instrumental reason, and modern despotism. The mainstreams in secular age can be summarized as follow:the first one is "disengaged reason" which based on the Enlightenment, but has its own deficiencies. The second one is "romanticism" which opposed the disengaged reason, and held that human nature is good and harmonious with cosmos. The third one is rationalized Christianity or "natural theology", which seeks for prerequisite of faith, reason is the best one in this a experiential world. Natural theology is another theological embranchment beside the revealed theology which integrated reason and faith.The fourth one includes Deism, Pantheism, and Atheism. Deism is a natural religion developed in 17th and 18th century. It advocates that the individual person can achieve religious truth through reason. Pantheism completely equates God with the world. God is the nature who creates nature. Both of Deism and Pantheism will lead to Atheism. The consequences of secularization inevitably is multiculturalism, where the common understanding of faith and moral disappeared. In addition, religion has become increasingly privatized and internalized, this causes to variety of religion today. In this multiculturalism, the Christian faith is difficult to find its position, some people, such as P. L. Berger, attempt to find the signals of transcendence in ordinary life. Some, like Charles Taylor, propose that the Christianity should open to other religious and non-religious cultures. In fact, the Christian faith gives us a sacred order, within it, God is not only a moral source, but also the other with Person. Talking with God is a way to break the closed immanent frame, and become fullness.In the end, I will discuss the influence of Charles Taylor in the history of secularization theory, and point out his contribution to the stuy of secularization. By a philosophical way, Charles Taylor try to demonstrate the significance of belief in God in a age.