The Death of Secular Messianism: Religion and Politics in an Age of Civilizational Crisis (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781606086506)

The Death of Secular Messianism argues that, the claims of secularists notwithstanding, modernity did not so much abandon humanity's historic search for the divine, but rather transposed it into a new, innerworldly key. This "secret religion of high modernity" came in both positivistic and humanistic variants. The first sought to overcome finitude by means of scientific and technological progress. The second sought to overcome contingency by creating a collective Subject--the Modern Democratic State or the Communist Party--in and through which human beings would become the masters of their own destiny. In making his case for this thesis, the author outlines a new political-theological and social-theoretical perspective which saves what is best in modernity--its focus on human creative activity and its commitment to rational autonomy and democratic citizenship--while re-engaging humanity's great spiritual traditions.

Author: Anthony E. Mansueto
ISBN-10: 1606086502
ISBN-13: 9781606086506
Publisher: Cascade Books
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2010
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.73d