Abstract

The point of departure of this review essay on Charles Taylor′s “A Secular Age” is that Taylor adds a new meaning to the already numerous meanings of the concept of “secularization”. His main interest is in the rise of what he calls “the secular option” and in the repercussions the availability of this option has for believers and non-believers. While his monumental study offers an immensely rich and rewarding material for the understanding of these processes, two major weaknesses are identified here. 1. By taking medieval Christianity – and not a completely pre-axial civilization – as the prototype of an “enchanted” world, Taylor is in danger of interpreting the constant efforts at reform as a linear vector leading to modernity. This does not do justice to the contingency of these processes. 2. Taylor seems to overestimate the quantitative dimension of what he calls the post-Durkheimian forms of religious life, but his understanding of the true nature of the Church as a quintessentially network society is very important. In general, in some parts Taylor′s masterful history of ideas has to be extended into a more sociologically oriented explanation of secularization processes