Charles Taylor’s Account of Secularization (I)

Abstract

In Taylor’s view, it is not possible to understand Western secularization without clarifying what do we understand by religion, how was religion lived in the past with which we compare our current situation, and which is the specific geographical area we want to study. He embraces a substantial notion of religion, makes use of historical and sociological studies on how religion was lived during the last five centuries, and concentrates on the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. He sets to study secularity in three ways: as the retreat of religion from the public space, the decline of religious belief and practice, and as changes in the conditions of belief for individuals. In his view, Western secularization is better understood as a “relocation” of religion in society and in personal lives, which entails the decline of past religious forms and the appearance of new ones. In his explanation of such a process, Taylor weaves three complementary stories. The first one evolves through three historical stages: the Ancien Régime (pre-modern), the Age of Mobilization (between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and the Age of Authenticity (after the 1960s). During all this time, social imaginaries were radically changed through the interaction of specific elite groups and the masses. Social imaginaries are self-understandings shared by people of a given society, which are also embedded in social practices. These self-interpretations are a-thematic and also provide with explanations about how do people live together as well as how they should.