Paul writes to a mixed Jewish-Gentile church in the imperial capital, around AD 57. The Roman world he is writing into is not godless; it is overstuffed with gods. "This age" for Paul is not a vague secular fog — it is a specific spiritual climate that wants to mold you into its shape without your noticing.

From the writers we read together

Charles Taylor

Catholic philosopher, author of A Secular Age

Taylor's central claim is that modern people are not unbelievers because they have argued their way out of faith; they are unbelievers because they live inside a default that makes faith feel optional. "This age" in Romans 12 is not the parts of culture you object to; it is the air you breathe without thinking.

Paul's answer is not a louder objection. It is a transfigured mind — one that has had the lid pried off the immanent frame and learned to expect God to act. The renewal of the mind is a long, daily work. It begins, ironically, by reading verses like this one and refusing to let them slide off.