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HISTORY, BELIEF AND IMAGINATION IN CHARLES TAYLOR'S A SECULAR AGE
Author(s) -
WARD GRAHAM
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2010.01611.x
Subject(s) - faith , perspective (graphical) , the imaginary , philosophy , religious belief , sociology , epistemology , religious studies , theology , psychoanalysis , psychology , art , visual arts
In this essay I explore, from a theologian's perspective, two questions which arise from the Taylor's development of a genre addressing two quite different audiences: the social scientists and the theologians. In particular, it examines the relationship between theology and history and the relationship between believing, an act of faith and the imaginary. While accepting the conditions for believing in the age of enchantment differ from those in a secular and disenchanted age, the essay concludes by questioning whether an act of faith was any less difficult and by pointing out that if it was less difficult then theologically we need a more nuanced account of the relationship between God and history.