Foreword by Charles Taylor Ix Introduction 3 Part One: THE METAMORPHOSES OF THE DIVINE THE ORIGIN, MEANING, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE RELIGIOUS The Historicity of the Religious 21 CHAPTER 1 Primeval Religion or the Reign of the Absolute Past 23 CHAPTER 2 The State as Sacral Transforming Agent 33 Hierarchy 37 Domination 39 Conquest 41 The Axial Age 43 CHAPTER 3 The Dynamics of Transcendence 47 Distancing God and Understanding the World 51 Divine Greatness, Human Liberty 57 From Myth to Reason 62 From Dependence to Autonomy 64 CHAPTER 4 From Immersion in Nature to Transforming Nature 67 Indebtedness to the Gods, the Inter-Human Bond, and the Relation to Things 68 THE POLITICAL MACHINE 70 THE VITALITY OF CHANGE 72 The Other World and Appropriating This World 74 Heaven and Earth: Christianity's Specificity 76 ORTHODOXY AND HERESY 79 INCARNATION AND INTERPRETATION 81 PRAYER AND WORK 84 The Structure of Terrestrial Integrity 86 THE CROWDED WORLD 87 COLLECTIVE PERMANENCE 88 PEACE 92 HOMO OECONOMICUS 94 Part Two: THE APOGEE AND DEATH OF GOD CHRISTIANITY AND WESTERN DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 5 The Powers of the Divine Subject 101 A Religion for Departing from Religion 101 Israel. Inventing God-as-One 107 MOSES: DOMINATING DOMINATION 108 THE COVENANT AND TRIAL BY ADVERSITY 109 THE PROPHETS 110 Jesus: The God-Man 115 MESSIANISM 115 THE SECOND MOSES 117 AN INVERTED MESSIAH 118 SAINT PAUL: THE UNIVERSAL GOD 124 CHRISTOLOGY 125 CONQUERING THE CONQUERORS 127 The Christian Revolution: Faith, Church, King 130 The Greeks: The Religion of Reason 44 The Turn toward Equality 151 CHAPTER 6 Figures of the Human Subject 162 Being-a-Self: Consciousness, the Unconscious 166 Collective-Being. Governing the Future 172 FROM SUBJUGATED SOCIETY TO SOCIAL-SUBJECT 173 THE AGE OF IDEOLOGY 176 THE CHILD AND THE FUTURE 179 BUREAUCRACY, DEMOCRACY 180 THE POWER OF THE IDENTICAL AND THE SOCIETY OF THE NEW 185 Living-with-Ourselves: Absorbing the Other 190 POLITICAL CONFLICT 191 THE SEPARATION OF THE STATE 195 The Religious after Religion 200 Notes 209 Bibliography 221 Index 225
Products specifications
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Author
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Marcel Gauchet |
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Pub Date
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24/10/1999 |
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Binding
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Paperback / softback |
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Pages
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272 |
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Country
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United States |
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Dewey
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306.609 |
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GBPPrice
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40.00 |
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Availability
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Available |
Marcel Gauchet has launched one of the most ambitious and controversial works of speculative history recently to appear, based on the contention that Christianity is "the religion of the end of religion." In The Disenchantment of the World, Gauchet reinterprets the development of the modern west, with all its political and psychological complexities, in terms of mankind's changing relation to religion. He views Western history as a movement away from religious society, beginning with prophetic Judaism, gaining tremendous momentum in Christianity, and eventually leading to the rise of the political state. Gauchet's view that monotheistic religion itself was a form of social revolution is rich with implications for readers in fields across the humanities and social sciences. Life in religious society, Gauchet reminds us, involves a very different way of being than we know in our secular age: we must imagine prehistoric times where ever-present gods controlled every aspect of daily reality, and where ancestor worship grounded life's meaning in a far-off past.
As prophecy-oriented religions shaped the concept of a single omnipotent God, one removed from the world and yet potentially knowable through prayer and reflection, human beings became increasingly free. Gauchet's paradoxical argument is that the development of human political and psychological autonomy must be understood against the backdrop of this double movement in religious consciousness--the growth of divine power and its increasing distance from human activity. In a fitting tribute to this passionate and brilliantly argued book, Charles Taylor offers an equally provocative foreword. Offering interpretations of key concepts proposed by Gauchet, Taylor also explores an important question: Does religion have a place in the future of Western society? The book does not close the door on religion but rather invites us to explore its socially constructive powers, which continue to shape Western politics and conceptions of the state.
