The Secular Experiment

"[T]here is something unique in our modern “secular,” Western culture, in that it is the site of the only large-scale attempt in human history at living an exclusive humanism. The self-congratulatory discourse about our exceptional status on this score is right in this respect: no one else ever tried it. And by virtue of living through this experiment, we will be in a better position to understand why."

Charles Taylor, A Catholic Modernity 105-06 (1999), quoted in Brennan, A Quandary in Law?: A Qualified Catholic Denial, 44 San Diego L. Rev. 97 (2007).