Authenticity, Identity and Our Secular Age
Charles Taylor’s “Our Secular Age” – A Short Summary – Good News
What’s the Root Cause of Our Problems?: Our Secular Age – Good News
How (NOT) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor – Good News
A Secular Age: Taylor, Charles: 9780674986916: Amazon.com: Books
The Ethics of Authenticity: Taylor, Charles: 9780674987692: Amazon.com: Books
The Ethics of Authenticity / The Malaise of Modernity (1991) – Charles Taylor – Good News
Fukuyama: Identity (2018) – Good News
Morality (2020) Jonathan Sacks – Good News
The Culture of Narcissism – Wikipedia
Expressive Individualism: What Is It?
Amazon.com: Stranger in a Strange Land: 9781984802781: Heinlein, Robert A.: Books
What’s The Root Cause of Our Problems?: Imperfect Myths – Good News
Thinking, Fast and Slow: Kahneman, Daniel: 9780374533557: Amazon.com: Books
Moral Foundations Theory / The Righteous Mind (9-1) – Good News
Science & Religion: A New Introduction: McGrath, Alister E.: 9781119599876: Amazon.com: Books
Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction: Ferngren, Gary B.: 9781421421728: Amazon.com: Books
The World is Not Atomistic, Deterministic, Materialistic – Good News
How existentialism shaped—and then faded from—modern thought
What’s The Root Cause of Our Problems?: Radical Individualism – Good News
6 Root Causes of Our Situation – Good News
Charles Taylor (philosopher) – Wikipedia
Who is the philosopher Charles Taylor? A Short Introduction
Congregational Strategy: Just One Page!
People are driven by their background thoughts which they absorb from our culture. (Freud, Jung, Campbell, Kuhn, Kahneman, Haidt).
We have moved from a Christian/Western Civilization mental background to “A Secular Age” (Taylor, Smith).
It is “possible” that there is no God, no spirit, no meaning, no hope (Existentialism, Postmodernism). We have culturally concluded that this is “true” in some sense despite tremendous evidence to the contrary. (Science and Religion).
The main replacement ideology is one of “expressive individualism” (Bellah, Rieff, Lasch, Taylor, Sacks, Fukuyama). Each individual lives his best life by defining and living by his nature, talents, creative destiny to build an identity. “Be all that you can be”. “Authenticity” becomes the supreme moral value.
This is the world we live in, the one that our children and grandchildren inhabit.
In such a world, community, religion, institutions, idealism, morals, trust and character are much less important.
It is only “individual”, skeptical, insecure, purely materialist “turtles all the way up and all the way down”.
Religion must adapt to this cultural reality.
People still know there is something else, something more to life. Meaning, beauty, love, art. (Esp. James KA Smith)
Each local congregation must find ways to meet these needs.
We meet these needs by living good lives despite these challenges. We live our faith. We actively address the philosophical/theological void and confusion.
We welcome others to join us in our real-world activities, not just or primarily worship service. (be missional)
A revolution of thought, priorities and activities is required to share “the good news” with our brothers and sisters.
Good News 