“Transcendence” in A Secular Age and Enchanted (Un)Naturalism

Abstract

In this chapter, Stewart questions aspects of the distinction between transcendent and immanent that Taylor seems to take for granted in A Secular Age. Stewart suggests that the Modern historical project of removing supernaturalism does not leave us with naturalism per se, but rather a Hegelian form of “unnaturalism.” He introduces a perspective that does not default to a material reductionism, but also does not take the notion of a transcendent God as unproblematic. Starting from an encounter with Taylor, he sees both Polanyi and Hegel as providing ways to understand Christianity from this skeptical yet “enchanted” perspective.