This book examines ¿Taylorean social theory ¿ its sources main characteristics and impact.
Charles Taylor¿s meta-narrative of secularization in the West prominently contained in his
major work A Secular Age (2007) has brought new insight on the social and cultural factors
that intervened in such process the role of human agency and particularly on the contemporary
conditions of belief in North America and Europe. This study discusses what Taylor¿s approach
has brought to the scholarly debate on Western secularization which has been carried on mostly
in sociological terms. McKenzie interprets Taylor¿s views in a way that offers an original
social theory. Such interpretation is possible with the help of sociologist Margaret Archer¿s
¿morphogenetic theory¿ and by making the most of Taylor¿s particular understanding of the
method of the social sciences and of his philosophical views on human beings knowledge and
modernity. After exploring the philosophical and sociological sources informing Taylorean
social theory and proposing its basic concepts and hermeneutic guidelines the author compares
it with two widespread theories of secularization: the now waning ¿orthodox¿ account and that
proposed by Rational Choice Theory scholars particularly prevalent in the United States. In
doing so the book shows in which ways Taylorean social theory supersedes them what new issues
it brings into the scholarly discussion and what difficulties might limit its future
development.
