The obstacles to religious enchantment in a secular age

It is open to us as long as we don't preclude a call from God

La conversion de Saint Augustin
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In the week and a half since I wrote critically about philosopher Charles Taylor's view of religion in our supposedly "secular age," the online conversation about the topic has gone in an unexpected direction, becoming a debate about the character of religious experience and conversion.

First, David Sessions mounted a partial defense of Taylor, arguing that under modern conditions conversions to and from religious belief are distinctive in that they tend to involve a mixture of experience and rational reflection. This is certainly the way Sessions describes his own de-conversion from fundamentalist Protestantism to his currently secular outlook — and he insists it's important that the person undergoing conversion in either direction not "abandon intellectual rigor." By which he seems to mean taking account of the latest findings of critical biblical scholarship and contemporary trends in academic theology.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.