Description
How do the history of religion and the history of political freedom relate to each other? The variety of views on this subject in philosophy, the humanities and social sciences, and the public is broad and confusing. But the grandiose synthesis in which Hegel brought together Christianity and political freedom is still an enormous source of orientation for many-despite or even because of the influential provocations of Friedrich Nietzsche.As Hans Joas shows in Under the Spell of Freedom, a different view has developed in the religious thinking of the twentieth century based on a conception of history that is more open to the future and on a concept of freedom that is richer than that of Hegel. Using sixteen selected thinkers, Joas deconstructs the grand Hegelian narrative of human history as the self-realization of the idea of freedom, setting as a counterpart the sketches of a theory of the emergence of moral universalism. Further, taking the classical views of Hegel and his emphasis on the role of Protestant Christianity and the extremely negative views about Christianity in the work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Joas elaborates on this new understanding of religion and freedom, which avoids both Eurocentrism and an intellectualist view of religious faith and practice.The result is a forceful plea for a global history of moral universalism. Under the Spell of Freedom is an important step in this direction.
Table of Contents
Preface Introduction: Hegel's Philosophy of Freedom and a Blind Spot in Present-day HegelianismPart I: A New Understanding of Religion in the Early Twentieth CenturyChapter 1: Introductory Remarks: A New Understanding of Religion in the Early Twentieth CenturyChapter 2: The Independence of Religion: Ernst TroeltschChapter 3: Secular Sacredness: Rudolf OttoChapter 4: Self-Evidence of Sense of Self-Evidence: Max SchelerPart II: Secularization and the Modern History of FreedomChapter 5: Introductory Remarks: Secularization and the Modern History of FreedomChapter 6: The Sacralization of Democracy: John DeweyChapter 7: Post-Totalitarian Christianity: Alfred D?blin's Religious DialoguesChapter 8: The Contingency of Secularization: Reinhart Koselleck's Theory of HistoryChapter 9: The Secular Option, Its Rise and Consequences: Charles TaylorPart III: The Search for a Different Kind of FreedomChapter 10: Introductory Remarks: The Search for a Different Kind of FreedomChapter 11: A German Idea of Freedom? Cassirer and Troeltsch Between Germany and the West Chapter 12: Indebted Freedom: Paul TillichChapter 13: Sieve of Norms and Holy Scripture, Theonomy and Freedom: Paul RicoeurChapter 14: Communicative Freedom and Theology of Liberation: Wolfgang HuberPart IV: The Project of a Historical Sociology of ReligionChapter 15: The Project of a Historical Sociology of ReligionChapter 16: Religion is More than Culture: H. Richard NiebuhrChapter 17: Christianity and the Dangers of Self-Sacralization: Werner StarkChapter 18: More Weberian Than Weber?: David MartinChapter 19: Religious Evolution and Symbolic Realism: Robert BellahChapter 20: Religion and Globalization: Jos? CasanovaConclusion: Global History of Religion and Moral UniversalismNotes Index
