How (not) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor

Abstract

Without any doubt, the best part of the book is the cover. The portrait of Charles Taylor on the front of the cover of Smith’s book could have been easily used in Roman times to emboss a coin during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Philosopher King. It is with such a similar admiration and devotion the author gives an interpretation of Charles Taylor’s “monumental” A Secular Age, a book that offers a genealogy of the secular and an archaeology of our angst (sic)’. Moreover, as the author asserts, “this is also meant to be a kind of how-to manual-guidance on how (not) to live in a secular age” (p. ix). James K.A. Smith’s book is written as a guide through the “forest” of Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age, published in 2007. It is an offspring of a seminar Professor Smith held at Calvin College, Michigan. Designed for pastors and church planters the author writes: “I believe Taylor’s analysis can help pastors and church planters understand better the contexts in which they proclaim the gospel. In many ways, Taylor’s Secular Age (sic) amounts to a cultural anthropology for urban mission” (p. xi). The book intends to afforest Taylor’s thoughts of secularisation theories and tries to digest key elements of the concept of secularisation, ready-made for practitioners and their business. Charts, tables, text boxes, sketches, and references to a vast number of popular songs are designed to break down Taylor’s argument into a more legible and intelligible format. The author has decided to present his understanding of Charles Taylor as a manual, a handbook to work and wrestle through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. One can read Smith’s book either as an interpretation of Charles Taylor’s work and classify it as a contribution to secularisation theory in the tradition of the good theological practice of writing commentaries to the gospel, or, as an exhortation for believers not to despair in times of advanced secularity. The book by James K.A. Smith is not an academic book, despite the misleading references to postmodern thinkers in footnotes, it is, first of all a pastoral book. A book in which Taylor’s work is analysed according to the normative imperative of spreading the gospel. Therefore, James K.A. Smith’s How (not) to be Secular is prone to suggesting shortcuts which, in the end, distort the accurate apprehension of a secular age. I recommend reading Charles Taylor’s book first, bearing in mind Marcus Aurelius’ stoic advice: ‘Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth’.