What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would ag
ree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of relig
ion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what w
ill be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of wha
t these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is
virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for
the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.Taylor, lon
g one of our most insightful thinkers on such questions, offers a historical per
spective.