Reforming the secular: ecclesial counter-formations and ordinary affirmations with James K. A. Smith and Charles Taylor

This paper seeks to address how the philosophies of Charles Taylor and James K. A. Smith describe and analyze secularism and the mission of the church by articulating the modern process of secularization according to Charles Taylor and articulate James K. A. Smith’s account of a Christian social imaginary developed through ecclesial counter formative liturgies to the contesting secular liturgies that lay a claim on our ultimate concerns. In turn, this paper argues that the church must play a counter-formative role in re-narrating our identity and re-forming secular notions of human flourishing through the re-sacralization of ordinary life through missiological vocations oriented as cultivators of creation and culture oriented to the telos of the Kingdom of God through the church’s liturgical re-formation, re-narration, and re-sending of Christians into the world as equipped with discernment to engage and renew/re-form secular culture.