I've started reading philosopher Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. A professor forwarded me a Call for Papers the deals with Taylor's work. I'm hoping to write and present a paper focused on online pastoral education that interacts with Taylor's concept of human flourishing.
Contrary to the narrative of Modern society, Taylor does not see human flourishing as an end in itself. Rather, he argues for a higher good, a transcendent God, that exists beyond human flourishing. It is the human response to God that results in human flourishing. Taylor posits that secularity has displaced the very idea of God as the centre of human social life. Secularity is not part of human nature but has it origins in "... the fruit of new inventions, newly constructed self-understandings and related practices..." (p. 22). I am interested in seeing how online learning affects learners so the part about new inventions intrigues me. I'm going to examine how the interaction with technology affects a person's sense of God's transcendence and power. Before I start writing I'll need to spend a bit more time with Taylor's book. With a page count over 800, it's probably going to take longer than expected.
Stay tuned!
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