Charles Taylor: the phenomenon of post-secular consciousness (reading on “A secular age”)

Abstract

The article deals with the existing philosophical approaches to manifestation of the secularization and to determine the origin of post-secular age concept. The focus of the research is directed to human post-secular consciousness. The writer analyses the achievements of Charles Taylor and his contribution in the modern philosophical and religious studies. One of the virtues of Charles Taylor’s work has been to show that we become secular not against religion but because of religion. Already in his numerous essays, collected in two volumes, Taylor had written about what he called the “expressivist tradition” and the Romantic tradition of valorizing the subjective and inwanders. This article is an reconstructive and critical project on Charles Taylor recent account of the role of religion in the public sphere. It is reconstructive since it develops an analysis of Taylor previous works as well as his new thoughts related to the key concepts involved in his argument. Finally, it is critical because it offers as well, based on the previous exegesis and reconstruction, a critical perspective of some of the weakness and deficiencies of Taylor account.