A magisterial book.
An analysis of secularism from Canadian philosopher Taylor (Modern Social Imaginaries, 2004, etc.), winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize.
If the author had accomplished nothing more than a survey of the voluminous body of “secularization theory,” he would have done something valuable. But, although Taylor clearly articulates his disdain for the view that modernity ineluctably led to the death of God, he goes far beyond a literature review. Insofar as belief in God is a choice, he argues, the West is now a profoundly secular society, and even the most devout in America partake of secularity. How did the West change from a society in which “it was virtually impossible not to believe in God” to one in which belief is optional? What Taylor is after in asking that question is the conditions for belief: Today, one’s “construal shows up as such”—that is, 600 years ago, people wouldn’t have reflected much on or even noticed the fact that they believed in God, but now everyone’s beliefs and non-beliefs are chosen, and they are thus both noticeable and noticed. In tracing the rise of secularism, Taylor ranges through the Reformation, the development of perspective in painting and, more recently, the creation of a youth market and post–World War II America’s obsession with authenticity. Our current society is “schizophrenic,” he concludes. We live in an “ideologically fragmented” world in which both belief and non-belief are under pressure to harness their moral sources to nurture human well-being and to reject violence. In addition to its conceptual value, this study is notable for its lucidity. Taylor has translated complex philosophical theories into language that any educated reader will be able to follow, yet he has not sacrificed an iota of sophistication or nuance.
A magisterial book.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-674-02676-6
Page Count: 896
Publisher: Belknap/Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
Brief inspirational essays from 30 popular gurus, presented by West Coast therapists Carlson and Shield. This anthology, the editors tell us, is an attempt to understand and connect us with the ``world of Soul.'' The essays are grouped into seven sections, with names like ``Rekindling Your Soul'' and ``A Return to Soul''; but since the material for the most part lacks differentiation, these divisions have little meaning. Rabbi Harold Kushner points out that, rather than remove a problem, God more often offers us inner strength to face it; Elisabeth KÅbler-Ross speaks of how crises have the power to open life up for us; while Stephen Covey reminds us of how nourishment of the soul has plenty to do with obedience to our conscience and our role in the community. Although there is much here about the importance of meditation and awareness in daily life, most of the contributors do not refer to the struggle that this involves and content themselves with exhortations and truisms about life's hidden possibilities. Furthermore, with rare exceptions, including Ram Dass, they do not tell us what they actually mean by ``the soul'' and how they understand its nature, even though many, like Wayne Dyer, presuppose the doctrine that the soul is in some sense God, or that one soul is common to all of us. The reader is left with a bland spirituality that, while it may provide a little depth for busy Americans, lacks so much as a hint of the awe and searing passion of a Milarepa or a John of the Cross. Popularized, feel-good wisdom, presented as a bromide instead of an incentive to more serious seeking.
Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-316-12812-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995
Guaranteed to alter your thinking about communication. Peters (Communication Studies/Univ. of Iowa) begins this delightful essay by observing that “Only moderns could be facing each other and be worried about ‘communicating’ as if they were thousands of miles apart.” For Peters, the concept of communication has evolved in tandem with its technology, leaving us chasing a moving target rather than closing in on a fixed ideal. It appears unavoidable that human beings divide the world into “me” and “not me” in distinct ways, creating both the joy of a world populated by individual personalities and the frustration of an insuperable barrier to transfers of unmodified meaning from one person to another. Intensifying the quest for “genuine” communication, whether introspectively through therapy or socially through increasingly powerful forms of media, expands our expectations along with our capabilities and can produce a crisis of communication in the midst of an information age. Peters is excellent at finding novel ways to illustrate this continuing “project of reconciling self and other.” The range of options is presented through contrasting the interactive and selective approach of Socrates (dialogue) with the one-way and all-inclusive approach of Jesus (dissemination). The essential association of communication with existence emerges in consideration of spirits and spiritualism in everything from philosophy to sÇances. The scope of communicative ambition is underlined by consideration of attempts to interact with animals and aliens. In the end, Peters concludes that the fears of isolation, which have pushed us to pursue communication as the true meeting of minds, have too often overshadowed our appreciation of what is unique. Touch, the ability to come into direct contact with another being, and time, the expression of our mortality, are “the two nonreproducible things we can share, our only guarantees of sincerity” through which we can “face the holiness and wretchedness of our finitude.” Original, erudite, and beautifully written, this book is a gem.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-226-66276-4
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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