%0 Journal Article
%T Secularization and the Loss of Love in BunyanĄ¯s PilgrimĄ¯s Progress
%A Daniel Boscaljon
%J Religions
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/rel4040669
%X In this paper, I place BunyanĄ¯s popular PilgrimĄ¯s Progress into a cultural context infused with, and informed by, a change from a sacred to secular preunderstanding. I discuss the ways that Bunyan wrestles with these changes in light of TaylorĄ¯s work on secularization, and theorize that BunyanĄ¯s text reveals how the sacred and secular imaginaries were able to merge through a shared embrace of an economic system of rationalization. Additionally, and more tragically, both ideologies share a disdain for love in its vulnerable, intimate, and material forms that has led us to desire security instead of attending to a more humble (but powerful and enriching) need for assurance. I conclude by discussing AdornoĄ¯s discussion of love and Auschwitz as a warning still necessary in our 21st century secular age.
%K secularization
%K love
%K theology
%K Bunyan
%K PilgrimĄ¯s Progress
%K Charles Taylor
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/4/669