Challenging, Complex and Intellectually Brilliant!

500 years ago, almost everyone was religious. "God" was assumed to be self evident as a power in the World. So how did we get to this, our secular age, where belief is often seen as irrational, mainstream religion is in decline, and the diversity of beliefs and unbelief have gone supernova? This is the central question Taylor addresses in this fascinating, detailed and intellectually rich magnum opus.

This is not a book for the faint hearted - several chapters were so complex, I had to listen hard, with full attention, and often go back more than once to really understand them. Once "in the groove" however, I found the fullness of Taylor's analysis, and the breadth of his understanding, awesome.

This is an account of the evolution of Western thought over the past 1000 years and beyond - not just an evolution of ideas, but in what Taylor calls our "Social Imaginary". He evocatively traces how the Mediaeval "porous" self, within an "enchanted" Cosmos, where dis-ease in nature reflected disease of spirit, where witches & demons, saints and relics had power, and transcendent & imminent worlds coalesced in a mutually supporting hierarchy of the "chain of being" - God, King, Priests, Barons, Surfs etc. as a unity of community and Cosmos - how this evolved through the Reformation and Enlightenment, through attempts (ironically) to reform the laity to the highest standards of piety, and became our modern day secular "buffered" humanistic individualistic self, living in a "disenchanted" imminent mechanistic universe.

What Taylor is attempting to refute are the prevalent "subtraction" narratives: that we have "grown up" out of religion, casting off childish superstition and ignorance, to be replaced by science and rational secular humanism. These subtraction accounts are compelling, and heroic, but totally unsupported by history. We are here because, not in spite of, our cultural roots. For example modern humanist values are traceable back to Christian values of "agape" as universal concern for others and we often forget that the precursors of our hospitals, universities and all forms of social care were founded and for centuries run, by the Church.

As for the future of religion, Taylor presents an optimistic and well argued case for a resurgence of interest in diverse forms of "transcendent" spiritual expression, and argues against the subtractionist view that religion will fade out as an unnecessary historical encumbrance. Imminent pleasures alone are insufficient, we need the transcendent dimension to re-discover the vivid fullness of life.

So, in conclusion, more than most audiobooks, listen to the sample before you buy. One thing that helped me was the narration by Dennis Holland in a pleasing and relaxed Canadian accent (Taylor is Canadian). Some short passages were in Latin, French or German, but for me, this did not detract.

Overall, whatever your views on religion, this audiobook is an erudite and ultimately highly enriching listen - but it does require some intellectual heavy lifting!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

One of the definite giants of our time

I've read this monumental work several times and I can honestly say it's a must read for anyone attempting to grasp the development and different imaginaries of our secular age. I recommend this audio book as a supplement to reading and studying the book itself, allowing you to revise the contents of the original.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

A Staggering Achievement

I have listened as I read to what is a barnstorm of a book about religion and its place in postmodern secularism. It is so thorough yet honest about what it leaves out, that I fear it’s sheer breadth will prevent some from reading it. I suppose that’s the way it goes. But if you have the time, will power and want to stretch your ability and understanding in these matters, then read it for yourself. The idea of The Buffered Self is simply brilliant.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

very poor french reading

english reading was pleasant, french, german, latin reading was very bad, hard to understand. I would recommend reading the real book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Rich but mixed performance

This would be an excellent reading of Taylor’s magnum opus if the narrator did not insist on reading French and German quotations despite being ignorant of both languages. The work itself is obviously hugely stimulating.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

best book,

very good and profound book, if you like history, you vil love it, but be patient

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Marred by the long quotes in terrible French

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This was always going to be a challenging listen, because of its length and the complexity of its theme. But the reason I had to abandon it partway through had nothing to do with the content.

The written work includes frequent long (up to a paragraph in length) quotations from key thinkers in the original language, followed by a translation. For the audible version, it needed to be edited so that only the translation was narrated. I don't know anybody who can translate mediaeval Latin or 18th century French by ear while driving a car down the motorway, so including the original texts added nothing. As the book progressed, I became increasingly frustrated at having to listen to several minutes of incomprehensible narration before getting to the translation.

As the narrative of the book moved to consider the thinkers of 17th and 18th century France, my frustration was increased by the grating, truly bad French accent of the narrator, and for the first time I had to abandon an audio book in the middle

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

A real struggle

This is a monumental tome and requires real dedication to get through. The book makes some amazing points, but does in a way that would have benefited from a strong editor. It's just too long. way way way too long, such that one can lose the thread of what Taylor is talking about. which brings me on to the language... Taylor is unnecessarily verbose... some of the words he uses are so archaic that he must have deliberately chosen them to confuse and jar the reader. And the constant quotations in French and German are intensely frustrating. I don't want to listen to three minutes of German, since I don't speak German. This book has made a profound contribution to the study of secularisation, but could do with an abridged version that would make it more accessible.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Endless explanation of details, important or not

I had been eagerly waiting to read this book. However, after trying hard to like it I have to admit that I'm quite disappointed.

The author seems to think that describing things as thoroughly as possible is the same thing as finding important truths. Unfortunately this approach gives us an enormous amount of details about every thought imaginable. But not very much wisdom.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!