Assertions and Refutations II: An Assessment of “A Secular Age” by Charles Taylor
by Dr. Donald G. Boland
This book is as stated on its cover an assessment of a book by Charles Taylor entitled “A Secular Age” published in 2007. It serves mainly as a critique of Taylor’s book, which generally was received favorably, not only in religious academic circles, Taylor being Catholic, but also in the “secular” academic world engaged in the subject matter he was concerned with.
As may be appreciated, this latter part of the modern world of education, especially at the highest levels, would be commonly described as “secular” in an anti-religious, meaning atheistic, sense. The favorable reception of Taylor’s thesis in both seemingly opposed educational worlds is somewhat curious, prompting one to look more closely into its thesis and conclusions.
Dr. Boland is mainly concerned with challenging the book’s assertions from the point of view of a follower of the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. But, since its subject matter is most properly within the scope of social and moral philosophy, he is also concerned to show up its deficiency even from the point of view of the philosopher Aristotle.
The author’s assessment should therefore prove to be one of interest to both secular and religious readers, Catholic or not.
Paperback: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99
OTHER TITLES BY DONALD G. BOLAND
- Logic, Science, and St. Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Natural Philosophy, Modern Science and Saint Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Science, Psychology and Saint Thomas Aquinas by Donald G. Boland | En Route Books and Media
- Ethics Today and Saint Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Natural Law – Australian Style | En Route Books and Media
- Political Science and Saint Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Economic Science and St. Thomas Aquinas: On Justice in the Distribution and Exchange of Wealth | En Route Books and Media
- The Social Encyclicals and Saint Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Metaphysics, Truth and St. Thomas Aquinas | En Route Books and Media
- Metaphysics/Ontology and St. Thomas Aquinas (Twenty Readings in Wisdom Forsaken) | En Route Books and Media
- Thomas of the Creator | En Route Books and Media
- The Thomist Tradition: Avoiding Scylla and Charybdis | En Route Books and Media
- Rev. Fr. Austin M. Woodbury, SM, PhD, STD and the Aquinas Academy (1945 – 1975) | En Route Books and Media
REVIEW BY FRANK CALNEGGIA
I found Dr. Boland’s assessment of “A Secular Age” to be very informative. He first catches Taylor out using the word “secular” in an equivocal manner; assigning to it four significations, including one of his own invention. It is anyone’s guess as to which meaning the title of the book is meant to convey. Dr. Boland points out the specific meaning of the word as used in the Church. Taylor, a Catholic academic of high standing, seems oblivious to the simple and common sense meaning of the word “secular”, so frequently used in Church Teaching documents.
Taylor, as Dr. Boland emphasises, seems not to have grasped the first principle of Sociology: it is a practical science and not a theoretical one like mathematics. Taylor falls in with the modern and common academic misconception of Sociology and its resulting methodology. He fails to stand out from the crowd. What a pity. With guidance from St Thomas and Aristotle he would see why at bottom sociology is a practical science: because first and foremost it is an ethical science. Without this necessary insight and the assessment and commentary on Social questions that could and should go with it, an 800 page book on which ever of the four meanings Taylor associates in a particular “Age” with “Secular” can only be an attempt to fill a void with side issues and irrelevancies.
Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI have been particularly strong in their addresses to Modern Secular Society (see e.g. their Addresses to the United Nations), on the need for the natural moral law to be a guiding legislative principle for all Nations and Societies. (For confirmation see my Assertions and Refutations “An Assessment of Dr. Tracey Rowland’s ‘Natural Law: From Neo-Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism’.”)
Another feature, or should I say debility, of “A Secular Age” Dr. Boland points up is Taylor’s lexical inventiveness. He uses words such as “porous” and “buffer”: words that seem to me to have been borrowed from the construction or building industry (Dr. Rowland is another Catholic trail blazer in this respect); words that one would expect to find on blue-prints for the Hoover Dam.
Dr. Boland has shown remarkable stamina with Taylor’s bloated book and much patience in commenting upon it. I highly recommend his assessment for the true Thomistic perspective it shines on “A Secular Age” (which ever of Taylor’s meanings you want to choose for “Secular” – he fiddles with “Age” as well) and the clear refutations of Taylor’s thesis it offers.
–Frank Calneggia, author of Assertions and Refutations: An Assessment of Dr Tracey Rowland’s Natural Law: From Neo Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism and editor of Analysing the Errors and Exposing the Real Agenda of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.: The Selected Works of Frits Albers, Vol. 1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donald G Boland Ll. B. (Sydney), Ph. D. (Angelicum) is a founding member of the Centre for Catholic Studies Inc. in Sydney Australia and is one of its former Presidents. He practiced for a number of years as a lawyer having a degree in law from the University of Sydney. Over much the same time, having obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas in Rome, he has taught philosophy and law in both Catholic and secular educational institutions, such as the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of Newcastle, the Aquinas Academy, the Centre for Thomistic Studies Inc., now operating under the name of the Centre for Catholic Studies Inc., and various Catholic seminaries, such as those of the Marists and the Vincentians. His doctoral thesis was on the concepts of utility and value in economics as found in the works of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas.
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