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)

With this episode we begin to look at the chapter 'The Impersonal Order'. As the exclusive authority of reason applied to the natural sciences starts to be applied to other fields, the communal image of God starts to shift. God is relegated to the sidelines with the Deist notion that he has set up the world and it is now left to humanity to make of it what we will.

Taylor claims that this movement was powered not only by reason, as some would posit, but an emerging distaste for 'old religion':

"The slide to Deism was not just the result of 'reason' and 'science', but reflected a deep-seated moral distaste for the old religion that sees God as an agent in history" (p. 274).

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (270-275)