In this episode we track the development of art as opening up a space of mystery and intrigue that comes to be a neutral space for unbelief to land in the Romantic era.

While at first the arts largely captured inherently beautiful things and expressed them in the appropriate public context, the context was first removed and later the subject, such that art could then just be beautiful and about nothing in particular.

Further, we posit that the next development has been that art no longer even has to be beautiful. But if beauty is something that naturally leads us to God, what does all this mean for the missionary in this space?

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (352-360)

-The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron

What happens to our understanding of our world and who we are within it when we start to realise that there is a mystery surrounding the physical origins of humanity and the world?

Charles Taylor highlights three themes that can emerge with this line of questioning:

i) ruins and deep time (time), the sense that there is an unrecoverable past that we have emerged from

ii) the sublime (space), the sense of the infinite expanse of nature at both the universe and microscopic levels

iii) the dark genesis of humanity (existence), the sense that our origins are mixed up mysteriously with that of the natural world around us, and we are perhaps less different than we might first imagine

As these directions spurt more and more avenues, so too does the no man's land between belief and atheism seem to widen. How are we to respond? We turn to a popular biblical narrative and return to the marketplace to find out.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (335-351)

In this episode we explore two shifts that occur at the turn of the 19th century that start to provide meaningful shape to the experience of living at the time: i) the shift from a cosmos to the universe, ii) an understanding an acceptance of the evoluntionary process.

As limits start to fade into a distant past, the imagination of the ordinary person slowly becomes more and more open to possibilities.

Rather than despair, this should be a moment of hope for Christians as we realise that imaginations everywhere are open for the rich reality of the Gospel.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (322-334)

In this episode we explore with Charles Taylor some of the felt dissatisfactions that begin to arise with the emergence of the buffered identity.

In the realm of resonance, these include i) the notion that Deism is too tame and that we must take love seriously, ii) a revulsion at goodness being only at the level of self-interest, and iii) the feeling that life within the immanent order is too easily reduced to a code.

In the realm of the romantic, these include i) the felt alienation of the self from the senses, ii) the felt alienation of the self from others, iii) the felt alienation of the self from nature. and iv) the felt sense of division between humanity and nature.

In the realm of tragedy, these include i) the sense that pain and suffering are too easily denied, ii) the loss of the heroic, iii) the rejection of a flat and levelled down sense of happiness, and iv) the lack of a place for death in the immanent frame.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (310-321)

In this episode we look at the objections of the Modern Moral Order to Orthodox Christianity:

i) it offends reason by holding a place for mystery

ii) it is authoritarian by holding an Almighty above us, offending both reason and freedom

iii) it poses impossible problems of theodicy

iv) it threatens the order of mutual benefit.

Of these, we take a particular look at theodicy, and the range of responses people might take.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (304-310)

In this episode we enter into the halls of Part III of A Secular Age - The Nova Effect. Once there is one viable option of unbelief, more and more become available and viable, as do ways of believing, as well as options at every point in between - an explosion of options for belief and unbelief.

Part III begins with Chapter 8 - The Malaises of Modernity, where Charles Taylor looks at what it feels like to be in a world so "progressed" and "free" but feeling like something isn't quite right.

We take time to note where we see the malaise in the world around us, and the response it draws out.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (299-304)

In a world where freedom has become such a key value, and in many ways is aligned with human dignity, does believing in God offend our freedom, or does it in fact provide a foundation for it?

In this episode we explore the implications of "I think, there I am" both in terms of how we view what is and could be real, and how we understand our freedom. With the glorification of disengaged reason, we can be fooled into thinking our mind is the sole maker of meaning in the universe.

"Disengagement may be quite the wrong way to go about increasing understanding" (p. 285)

"The prestige of the stance begins to dictate what we can take in as reality" (p.286)

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (280-295)

In this episode we look at 6 tensions between classical Greek thought and Orthodox Christianity as they played out in the aftermath of the Enlightenment: i) the importance of the body, ii) what of our lives is important when we reach our ultimate end, iii) the sense of the individual in eternity, iv) the importance of contingency and the unfolding of history, (v) the importance of the emotions, and vi) the human person as one who is capable of divine communion.

For each of these, we've formulated a reflection question for you to think and/or discuss and/or pray about:

i) Is the body part of the highest good, or a hindrance to it?

ii) Is the whole story of ups and downs of someone's life important in the end, or just where you end up?

iii) Is the individual retained in the end or lost in the gathering of eternity?

iv) Has God pre-written the story, or does it unfold as different events and choices are made?

v) Does God have emotion? If we're moving towards being like God, what should be the place of our emotions?

vi) Are we created and saved to go to heaven, or to be in personal communion with the divine?

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (275-280)