The Age of Authenticity refers to the contemporary cultural phase where personal choice and individualism are paramount. A Secular Age describes this era as one in which individuals seek to live in a way that feels true to their inner selves, often distancing themselves from traditional religious frameworks. Taylor’s concept gives a framework for how modern individuals navigate the pluralistic and secular landscape, embracing a variety of beliefs that resonate on a personal level rather than adhering to a singular, institutionalized faith.

Cross-pressures are the conflicting forces individuals experience between belief and unbelief in a secular society. This term describes the inner tensions faced by those navigating different worldviews, such as traditional faith and modern secularism or science and spirituality. These pressures are a critical feature of the secular condition, illustrating how modern people often feel pulled in multiple directions, leading to spiritual unease or ambivalence.

The immanent frame is a conceptual lens through which the modern world is understood as self-contained and explainable without recourse to the supernatural or divine. This frame is a hallmark of secular modernity, where explanations of reality are confined to naturalistic and humanistic terms. The immanent frame does not preclude belief in the transcendent but makes it one of many possible interpretations, thus fundamentally altering how individuals relate to the sacred.