Christian Higher Education in a Secular Age : Charles Taylor, the Humanities, and Faith-Based Education

This book explores the implications of Charles Taylor’s analysis of secularity for the work of humanities education in Christian institutions of higher learning.

At the heart of this collection of essays is a central question: how can humanistic education in faith-based institutions contribute to human flourishing within secular societies?This book explores the implications of Charles Taylor’s analysis of secularity for the work of humanities education in Christian institutions of higher learning. It argues that by locating themselves and their scholarship within Taylor’s open frame, scholars can draw on the resources of their disciplinary expertise within the various branches of the humanities to overcome the polarizing tendencies of modern life to the benefit of all. The contributors to the volume challenge and encourage scholars in the humanities to call their students into dialogue with Taylorian themes and concepts as good neighbors working for the flourishing of the academy and the wider world. They draw on Taylor’s discussion of the parable of the Good Samaritan to develop the theme of neighborliness in higher education. An enlightening study of religion and secularism, the book will be an essential reading for scholars, researchers, and administrators in the fields of religious higher education, religious studies, and the philosophy of education.