How (Not) to Be Secular by James K.A. Smith – Book Review

BOOK REVIEW
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
by James K.A. Smith

Living in a secular age means, not that we are living in what is left when God and religion are taken out of the mental framework of a society (a subtraction story), but that we are living in a space where everyone feels a metaphysical tension, where there are choices. We are no longer living in a world where everyone we meet sees the world through the same lens we do.

The popular story is that religion will continue to dwindle until there is nothing left, but that is not proving to be true. Many of those who have rejected traditional Christianity are still searching for something “more”. There is both a sense of doubt and of longing (what C. S. Lewis would call joy?) within us. We are feeling pressed between a closed, materialistic way of viewing the world and an open, transcendent view. We are searching for meaning.

I often felt like the kid at the table listening in to the adult conversation while reading this. I don’t have enough background knowledge to fully understand all that I read, and YET many times over the course of the book I said to myself, “This is why I’ve thought like that! Here is a piece to the puzzle of why I’ve struggled for so many years with philosophical and theological questions. I HAVE to read A Secular Age.”

I found the first three chapters where he talked about the shift from a medieval to a modern/postmodern “imaginary” to be the most interesting. Our modern world is disenchanted – moving the location of meaning from “the world” into “the mind”. Meaning is generated in the mind rather than in things. (Enter, The Matrix) The way we see the world (not necessarily what we THINK, but our conception of the space we live in) is different than it used to be.

Some favorite quotes:

“The Reformers’ rejection of saramentalism is the beginning of naturalism, or it at least open the door to its possibility. It is also the beginning of a certain evacuation of the sacred as a presence in the world.” (p. 39)

“Rather than see ourselves positioned within a hierarchy of forms (in which case we wouldn’t be surprised if “higher levels” are mysterious and inscrutable), we now adopt a God-like, dispassionate “gaze” that deigns to survey the whole. … Thinking we’re positioned to see everything, we now expect an answer to whatever puzzles us, including the problem of evil. Nothing should be inscrutable. (p. 52)

“On [Taylor’s] account, our secular age is haunted, and always has been. Certainly belief is contested and contestable in our secular age. There’s no going back. Even seeking enchantment will always and only be reenchantment after disenchantment. But almost as soon as unbelief becomes an option, unbelievers begin to have doubts – which is to say, they begin to wonder if there isn’t something “more.” (p. 61)

“One of the features of post-Romantic art, [Taylor] suggests, is a fundamental shift from art as mimesis to art as poeisis – from art imitating nature to art making its world.” (p. 74)

FREE Audio Books

These audio books from Librivox are always free! There is an app that might make these easier to access for your kids. The Pro version with no ads is $2. Sometimes the narrators are unpleasant to listen to since they are all volunteers and don’t always have good recording equipment, so you need to check first. I’m including ones that seem pretty good from the samples. If you don’t like a particular narrator, check the site/app to see if there is another version you would like better. These are all books we did use in our homeschool or would have used if I’d known about them. The age ranges are just my best guess and may not be right for your particular children. I did try to note any that I remembered being somewhat scary. Don’t skip the ones with “princess” in the title if you have a boy. These are great stories for all!….

 

AGES 4+:

My Father’s Dragon (This is the most adorable thing you will ever hear!)

Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories (Dramatic Readings by a cast of children)

When We Were Very Young (delightful poetry by A.A. Milne)

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Poems Every Child Should Know

The Aesop for Children (various narrators)

Aesop’s Fables

The Adventures of Peter Cottontail

The Adventures of Reddy Fox

The Adventures of Sammy Jay

The Adventures of Bobby Coon

The Adventures of Buster Bear

The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel

The Adventures of Bob White

The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk

The Adventures of Johnny Chuck

The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer

The Adventures of Old Man Coyote

The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad

The Adventures of Paddy Beaver

Blacky the Crow

Mother West Wind “Where” Stories

Raggedy Ann Stories

Fifty Famous Stories Retold

Just So Stories

 

 

AGES 6+:

The King of the Golden River

The Reluctant Dragon

Five Children and It

Five Children and It (Dramatic Reading)

The Book of Dragons

Rikki Tikki Tavi (short story)

A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys (Greek Myths)

A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys (another version)

The Light Princess and Other Tales

The Princess and the Goblin (possibly scary for sensitive children)

The Princess and Curdie

At the Back of the North Wind

Puck of Pook’s Hill

Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (some stories are scary for sensitive children)

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The Railway Children

The Railway Children (Dramatic Reading)

Hans Brinker (or The Silver Skates)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (The whole series is available on the site here.)

Eight Cousins

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Understood Betsy (This is especially good for fearful/shy children to listen to!)

Jack and Jill

Teddy’s Button

A Little Princess

A Little Princess

Little Lord Fauntleroy (Dramatic Reading)

The Secret Garden

Under the Lilacs

Heidi

Heidi (Dramatic Reading)

Pollyanna

The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Tales from Shakespeare

Black Beauty

Our Island Story, Part 1

Our Island Story, Part 2

Peter Pan (Dramatic Reading)

The Wind in the Willows

The Jungle Book

 

AGES 9+

The Children of Odin

The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tales of Troy

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles

Children of the New Forest

The Story of Rolf and the Viking’s Bow

The Story of Mankind

The Story of the Other Wise Man (Christmas story)

What Katy Did

What Katy Did at School

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Avonlea

Rilla of Ingleside

Grammar-Land (Good intro to parts of speech)

 

 

Books we haven’t read but I thought looked interesting:

The Book of Art for Young People (This would be good for art study during school!)

Little Bear

Our Little English Cousin

Royal Children of English History

KayRay’s Storytime

Stories of Great Composers for Children

A Little Brother to the Bear

Uncle Wiggily on the Farm

Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard

The Story of Abraham Lincoln

Historical Tales

American Fairy Tales

Bird Stories from Burroughs

Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers

 

 

And here is a list of books for you to find in your library app if possible:

  • Winnie the Pooh
  • The House at Pooh Corner
  • Just So Stories
  • Books by Thornton Burgess
  • Farmer Boy
  • The Blue Fairy Book by Lang (may be scary)
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series
  • Charlotte’s Web
  • Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  • Peter and the Wolf (music and story)
  • Fifty Famous Stories Retold
  • Little House in the Big Woods
  • The Little Duke by Yonge
  • The Wind in the Willows
  • Homer Price
  • Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
  • Otto of the Silver Hand (child loses a hand, combat to the death)
  • Along Came a Dog
  • The Door in the Wall
  • The Light Princess by Macdonald
  • King of the Wind
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  • The Secret Garden
  • Peter Pan
  • A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales by Hawthorne
  • All-of-a-Kind Family
  • Five Children and It
  • The Hundred Dresses
  • Pippi Longstocking
  • Children of Noisy Village
  • The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
  • The Indian Captive
  • Little Britches
  • Day Boy and Night Girl
  • The Princess and the Goblin
  • Call It Courage
  • Stuart Little
  • The Cabin Faced West
  • The Sign of the Beaver
  • Bud, Not Buddy
  • A Bear Called Paddington
  • The Mouse and the Motorcycle
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and sequels
  • Ben and Me
  • Mr. Revere and I
  • Rabbit Hill
  • By the Great Horn Spoon
  • Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
  • Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
  • The Great Turkey Walk
  • My Side of the Mountain
  • Understood Betsy
  • A Little Princess
  • Our Island Story

Newer Publications:

  • The Green Ember and sequels
  • American Tall Tales by Osborne
  • The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series
  • The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
  • The Borrowers
  • The Moffats
  • The Saturdays
  • Redwall
  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (and others by Grace Lin)
  • Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes
  • On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness and sequels
  • The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
  • TumTum and Nutmeg series
  • Wonder
  • The Wild Robot
  • Because of Winn Dixie
  • The Phantom Tollbooth

Great Book Lists

Most of these are book lists I have used and enjoyed for our family! When you have one or more voracious readers, you’ve got to stay ahead of them! There was no way I could preview all books before my daughter read them. These are the lists I trusted (or would trust if I’d known about them at the time) to give me high quality selections that promote the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. (That doesn’t mean there is nothing ugly or evil in these books. Far from it! But sometimes you need to see how dark evil is in order to see the true strength and light of the Good.)

1000 Good Books

Read Aloud Revival

Charlotte Mason Plenary

Well Educated Heart

Reshelving Alexandria (requires membership to view all books)

Sonlight (Christian)

Bookshark (secular)

Sabbath Mood Living Science Books

Living Math Books

Ursa Minor (7th-12th grade)

Ambleside Online (check especially the literature and read aloud sections)

Wildwood Curriculum