"There is a widespread sense of loss here, if not always of God, then at least of meaning.  Secularism has played huge factor in modern society, it's not only evident in our cultural aspects, but in our political aspects of life too. In Charles Taylor's 2007 book, A Secular Age, he analyses the significance of Christianity in our lives, along with its role in our government, and thoroughly dissects its' changes throughout the course of modern history. Today, I will be focusing on the chapter ˜The Malaises of Modernity'. In this chapter Taylor discusses the development of a contemporary society, presented in three primary stages. The first being an explanation of how the humanist alternative of the Christian faith came about. The second being the many critiques of orthodox religion leading to a number of new alternatives of faith and lastly, an evaluation of the culture of ˜authenticity', an age in which people are encouraged to ˜find their own way'. A key attribute to Taylor's philosophy, seen throughout many of his works, is that we know of our world through our engagement in it, not through detaching ourselves as observers. This philosophy is put into play in this book, Taylor truly puts himself into each era he is investigating. This paper will review Taylor's views as well as his main arguments, and will evaluate the quality of Taylor's writing and focus on any areas of weakness within the chapter. Taylor opens the first part of the chapter with a brief introduction to the topics he will be facing. He wants to explain how the ˜Nova Effect' has come to boil. To begin, an explanation of how the humanist alternative of the Christian faith came about and in a sense, attempts to provoke the reader's thought. He does this by questioning whether we can describe the move from the belief of Deism (the belief that observation of the natural world is enough to determine the existence of a God), to the humanism belief. He believes