The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion

Marcel Gauchet

Princeton University Press, Oct 24, 1999 - History - 228 pages

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.

Contents

• Primeval Religion or the Reign of the Absolute Past: 23
• The State as Sacral Transforming Agent: 33
• Hierarchy: 37
• Domination: 39
• Conquest: 41
• 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
• From Immersion in Nature to Transforming Nature: 67
• Indebtedness to the Gods the InterHuman Bond and the Relation to Things: 68
• THE POLITICAL MACHINE: 70
• THE VITALITY OF CHANGE: 72
• The Other World and Appropriating This World: 74
• Christianitys 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
• THE APOGEE AND DEATH OF GOD CHRISTIANITY AND WESTERN DEVELOPMENT: 99
• The Powers of the Divine Subject: 101
• Inventing GodasOne: 107
• DOMINATING DOMINATION: 108
• THE COVENANT AND TRIAL BY ADVERSITY: 109
• THE PROPHETS: 110
• The GodMan: 115
• THE SECOND MOSES: 117
• AN INVERTED MESSIAH: 118
• THE UNIVERSAL GOD: 124
• CHRISTOLOGY: 125
• CONQUERING THE CONQUERORS: 127
• Faith Church King: 130
• The Religion of Reason: 144
• The Turn toward Equality: 151
• Figures of the Human Subject: 162
• Consciousness the Unconscious: 166
• Governing the Future: 172
• FROM SUBJUGATED SOCIETY TO SOCIALSUBJECT: 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
• Absorbing the Other: 190
• POLITICAL CONFLICT: 191
• THE SEPARATION OF THE STATE: 195
• The Religious after Religion: 200
• Notes: 209
• Bibliography: 221
• Index: 225

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About the author

Marcel Gauchet is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He is the editor of Le Débat, France's most influential intellectual journal, and the author of numerous books. This current book was published in France as Le Désenchantement du monde.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion; New French thought
• Author: Marcel Gauchet
• Translated by: Oscar Burge
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1999
• ISBN: 0691029377, 9780691029375
• Length: 228 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; History / World; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Religious; Political Science / History & Theory; Religion / Comparative Religion; Religion / General; Religion / History; Religion / Philosophy; Religion / Religion, Politics & State