Taylor highlights three features of this medieval imaginary that functioned as obstacles to unbelief (p. 25): 1. The natural world was constituted as a cosmos that functioned semiotically, as a sign that pointed beyond itself, to what was more than nature. 2. Society itself was understood as something grounded in a higher reality; earthly kingdoms were grounded in a heavenly kingdom. 3. In sum, people lived in an enchanted world, a world “charged” with presences, that was open and vulnerable, not closed and self-sufficient.
