A01=Marcel Gauchet
Absurdity
Agnosticism
Ambiguity
Asceticism
Atheism
Author_Marcel Gauchet
Barbarian
Caesaropapism
Category=JBCC9
Category=JPA
Category=QRAB
Censure
Christianity
Circular reasoning
Conscience
Consubstantiality
Contradiction
Criticism
Critique
Critique of ideology
De facto
De jure
Deity
Demagogue
Dictatorship
Disenchantment
Dissident
Doctrine
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Expense
Gnosticism
God
God Alone
Hatred
Heresy
Heterodoxy
Impermanence
Individuation
Infidel
Injunction
Internalization
Invisible hand
Irreligion
Isolationism
Monism
Monotheism
Mutual exclusion
Nonbeliever
Obligation
Obscurantism
Obstacle
Oppression
Orthodoxy
Otherworld
Paul Hindemith
Persecution
Political division
Radicalization
Reductionism
Religion
Renunciation
Secularization
Social rejection
Soteriology
Subjectivity
Superstition
Tardiness
Tardiness (scheduling)
Tearing
The Exodus
Thought
Trance
Unanimity
Uncertainty
Yahweh
Product details
- ISBN 9780691029375
- Weight: 369g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 24 Oct 1999
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
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.
