{"id":25456,"date":"2020-01-17T18:38:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T02:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25456"},"modified":"2020-01-17T18:38:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T02:38:35","slug":"what-would-taylor-say-vocation-the-reformation-and-secular-humanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/what-would-taylor-say-vocation-the-reformation-and-secular-humanism\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would Taylor Say: Vocation, the Reformation, and Secular Humanism"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to study the work of vocation without taking into consideration the deep fundamental shifts that took place during the Protestant Reformation. Luther, in his attempt to alter the \u201cspeeds\u201d[1]<\/a> or freedom[2]<\/a> with which faith was exercised, ended up inspiring a reformation of faith. Luther succeeded at this Reformation while many before him had failed.[3]<\/a> While we understand that the Protestant Reformation is central to the evangelical faith tradition, Charles Taylor argues that the Reformation is central to the creation of a \u201chumanist alternative to faith.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charles Taylor is a philosopher who wrote A Secular Age<\/em>, published in 2007. The book centers on the idea that the age of secularism is \u201cmessier than many would lead us to believe\u201d[5]<\/a> and that there are actually three forms of secularism that have come to pass. Taylor contends that secularism is not just the separation or church and state, nor the decline of faith and practice, but also the conditions of belief and the way faith and belief arise from individuals.[6]<\/a> This \u201csecular3\u201d[7]<\/a> calls it really centers around the idea that this shift towards secularity3 is made of up \u201ca move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among other, and frequently, not the easiest to embrace.\u201d[8]<\/a> Essentially, according to Taylor, we\u2019ve moved from a society where belief in God was virtually impossible to the idea that belief in God is one of many options available.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As we move this understanding forward, we see that Taylor holds the understanding that the Reformation was critical to the movement of his secular3 forward. Taylor holds the idea that in the Reformation, the idea was that instead of lowering the role of clergy to that of laity, which was an unthinkable denigration, Luther brought the message that all humanity were sinners and deserve punishment and salvation can only come from the inner acceptance of this reality.[10]<\/a> This, in turn, leveled the playing field of vocation. Luther argued that all Christians should be devoted in their work to the supreme work of God, and that faith in God was the source of all genuine good work.[11]<\/a> However, this genuine good work was not a requirement of faith, meaning they don\u2019t earn our salvation, but they are necessary nonetheless. Furthermore, these good works were to be carried out for the betterment of all society, not just the individual. Taylor argues that this idea of leveling the idea of the playing field in work would give way to the idea of \u201csecular humanism\u201d[12]<\/a> which is the idea that there are ways of constructing meaning and significance that do not need to stem from God.[13]<\/a> This concept of religious reformation remakes society to be called to a higher standard, which holds accountability in the hands of all people, which leads to a new understanding of social and cultural life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be all together that surprising then, when we pick up books on vocation written for audiences today, that we see that spiritual fulfillment comes from \u201ca personal commitment to spiritual well-being\u2026a personal intervention with social systems\u2026a personal engagement with the needs of others.\u201d[14]<\/a> This is secular humanism at work in 2020. I wonder if Taylor would think that the terminology we\u2019re using around vocation today, especially as we consider youth and college-aged students, doesn\u2019t just stem from the Reformation but demonstrates a lived out secular3. We throw around terms like \u201ccalling\u201d and \u201cintersectionality\u201d which put the power of identity development in the power of the individual. What would Taylor say?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Charles Taylor, A Secular <\/em>Age (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 77.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Scott Hendrix, Martin Luther: A Very Short <\/em>Introduction (Oxford, UK.: Oxford University Press, 2010), 2.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Ibid., 5.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Charles Taylor, A Secular <\/em>Age (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 77.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to be Secular: Reading Charles <\/em>Taylor, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2014), 94.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Direction Chr\u00e9tienne, \u201cEntrevue avec Charles Taylor \u2013 Interview with Charles Taylor\u201d, 16:29, https:\/\/vimeo.com\/143608489?fbclid=IwAR2JiQkmwYESR2Tgb8vlrfr8IPXmhWBeHET9-HCHR-IyP6nu5Wioi9qls50<\/u><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Charles Taylor, A Secular <\/em>Age (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 2.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 2<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 3<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid., 75<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Scott Hendrix, Martin Luther: A Very Short <\/em>Introduction (Oxford, UK.: Oxford University Press, 2010), 51.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to be Secular: Reading Charles <\/em>Taylor, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2014), 26.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Ibid., 26.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> David Wright, How God Makes the World a Better Place: A Wesleyan Primer on Faith, Work, and Economic Transformation <\/em>(Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian\u2019s Library Press, 2012), xvi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to study the work of vocation without taking into consideration the deep fundamental shifts that took place during the Protestant Reformation. Luther, in his attempt to alter the \u201cspeeds\u201d[1] or freedom[2] with which faith was exercised, ended up inspiring a reformation of faith. Luther succeeded at this Reformation while many before him had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[835,1737,1119,186,1506],"class_list":["post-25456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charles-taylor","tag-martin-luther","tag-reformation","tag-taylor","tag-vocation","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25458,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25456\/revisions\/25458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}