University Essay: Summary of Charles Taylor's Secularization Theory

This essay summarizes Charles Taylor's theory of secularization, focusing on his lectures at the University of Edinburgh. Taylor explores the multifaceted meanings of secularization, distinguishing between the decline of religious practice and the retreat of religion from the public sphere. He critiques the "subtraction theory" of secularization, arguing against the idea that modernity simply removes religious belief. Taylor posits that secularism is a paradigm shift originating within religion itself, particularly from the Reformation. He examines two types of secularization theories: one emphasizing the decline of personal faith and the other highlighting the marginalization of religion in social life. Taylor suggests that a society can be secular while still maintaining high rates of religious practice, using the U.S.A as an example. He challenges the notion of a uniform decline in religious practice and argues against the idea that it is a simple outcome of modern science. The essay concludes by highlighting Taylor's opposition to one-sided explanations of secularization, emphasizing the need to consider the influence of scientism and its underlying moral framework.

Running head: SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
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1SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
In the year 1999, Charles Taylor delivered a set of lectures in the University of
Edinburgh and there he tried to come to the grips with the question- “What does it means to
call our age secular?” He is the one to remind the readers of his books that secularisation has
many meanings. This paper shall elaborate on presenting a summary of Charles Taylor’s
theory of Secularisation.
As per Taylor, a society can be a secular society if there the state and the churches are
rigidly divides and still have very high incidence of religious practice. He believes that the
only problem with the Enlightenment vision of the progress is just the theory of secularisation
behind it. In his words, it is a “subtraction theory of secularisation”. As per him, the idea that
science and technology have attained in the contemporary world is a raiding away of the
needless, the superstitions of the primitives revealing the important, and the rational core of
mankind. It is completely wrong (Smith, 2014). He claims, secularism is a paradigm shift and
the origin of its les within the religion itself, especially in the Reformation drive for
collapsing the difference in between the “higher flourishing” of people implicit in the
religious lives of priests and monks and “lower flourishing” of people who are engaged in the
day to day life.
Charles Taylor have claimed that deep down, secularism has left the people of today
leading a atomised and hollow lifestyles that is devoid of “fullness”. Taylor has observed that
the idea of “secularisation” has two different meanings and they are- a) the decline or
demotion of the religious practise and belief, b) the retreatment of the religious from the
public space. This further enables him to present and differentiate the two types of theories on
the secularisation process. As per the very first type of theory, the demotion of the personal or
individual faith is basically the engine of secularisation and it sees the gradual disappearance
of the religion from the public space as a result of that. However, the second type of theory
claims just opposite of the relation. As per it, “the marginalization of the religion in social life

2SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
was the main factor, resulting in the decline of personal faith” (Smith, 2014). It is to note that
in the first theory, science is invokes as the main force behind the formation of religious
belief becoming highly problematic, one of the paradigm example is the theory of evolution
of Darwin. On the other hand, in the second theory, the institutional changes in the
contemporary world are considered to be the main reason being the formation of
secularisation.
This type of theory is very common among the church figures who seek for promoting
a return to the past, where the religious belief went in hand with all the strong cultural and
moral norms and regulations. They automatically tend to focus on the decline or demotion of
the presence of God in the public sphere and then, bemoan the declining of the religious
practises. In the churches’ practise today, this theory is very relevant. One of the best
example is the fact that amount of people visiting churches today and following every
religious norms and values are gradually declining. Also, the second and opposite readings
could be found in the proponents of the concept of secularisation (Smith, 2014). They view it
as narrative of the progress. Charles Taylor claims that a society can be secular in the sense of
withdrawal of God from the “public spheres”, but at the same time, still have high rates of
religious practise. One of the best example is that in U.S.A. With the same, he also claims
that a society do not display secularisation in the sense of decline of the religious practise.
Both of its notion have a highly Christian antecedents in the unfolding of the new
sense of identity. In this manner, Charles Taylor seeks for countering a reading in which he
thinks the current situation to be simply in terms of decline and demotion. He also argue
against the subtraction stories of modernity by claiming that such decline in the religious
practise is not uniform in nature. At the same time, it is also not an important outcome of the
emergence of the modern science.

3SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
Hence, from the above analysis it is to state that Charles Taylor have presented two
meanings for the notion of secularism. He have opposed one-sidedness of these explanations
as well. As per him, human beings need to seriously take the drawing power of scientism. It
is not something that is a neutral stance towards the whole world, but it is something that
rests itself on a moral framework along with some ethics of belief.

4SUMMARY OF CHARLES TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SECULARIZATION
References:
Smith, J. K. (2014). How (not) to be secular: Reading Charles Taylor. Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing.