The disenchantment of the world
Subtitle: a political history of religion
By: Marcel Gauchet ; translated by Oscar Burge ; with a foreword by Charles Taylor.
Series: New French thought
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Religion; Religions; Religion and politics; Civilization, Secular
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-223) and index.
Translated from the French edition of Marcel Gauchet, Le désenchantement du monde.