Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter addresses the complex question of how the possible impact of ANiS could be assessed. It argues that an initial important effect of ANIS meetings and programmes is that on it's own ...
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This chapter addresses the complex question of how the possible impact of ANiS could be assessed. It argues that an initial important effect of ANIS meetings and programmes is that on it's own members; this strengthens the movement internally. The degree to which the rationalists’ lectures and programmes impact upon their audience is difficult to assess but may not be that far-reaching. More important to consider are the immediate impacts of their legal activities, which would be heightened with the potential passing into law of the Anti-Superstition Bill. Finally, the question is raised as to what degree the general worldview, as well as the concrete activities of the rationalists, have a more subtle, mediate impact on wider society as part of larger processes of disenchantment and rationalisation.Less
This chapter addresses the complex question of how the possible impact of ANiS could be assessed. It argues that an initial important effect of ANIS meetings and programmes is that on it's own members; this strengthens the movement internally. The degree to which the rationalists’ lectures and programmes impact upon their audience is difficult to assess but may not be that far-reaching. More important to consider are the immediate impacts of their legal activities, which would be heightened with the potential passing into law of the Anti-Superstition Bill. Finally, the question is raised as to what degree the general worldview, as well as the concrete activities of the rationalists, have a more subtle, mediate impact on wider society as part of larger processes of disenchantment and rationalisation.
Matthew Flinders
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199271603
- eISBN:
- 9780191709241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271603.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics, Political Economy
This chapter examines the concept of depoliticization in detail. It seeks to show how it has played an increasingly important role since the election of New Labour in 1997, and how it raises ...
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This chapter examines the concept of depoliticization in detail. It seeks to show how it has played an increasingly important role since the election of New Labour in 1997, and how it raises fundamental questions about the nature of ‘the political’, the limits of democracy, and the existence of more positive choices in the face of growing public disenchantment with politics.Less
This chapter examines the concept of depoliticization in detail. It seeks to show how it has played an increasingly important role since the election of New Labour in 1997, and how it raises fundamental questions about the nature of ‘the political’, the limits of democracy, and the existence of more positive choices in the face of growing public disenchantment with politics.
Harvey Cox
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158853
- eISBN:
- 9781400848850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158853.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter studies the biblical sources of secularization, showing how three pivotal elements in the biblical faith have each given rise to one aspect of secularization. The disenchantment of ...
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This chapter studies the biblical sources of secularization, showing how three pivotal elements in the biblical faith have each given rise to one aspect of secularization. The disenchantment of nature begins with the Creation; the desacralization of politics with the Exodus; and the deconsecration of values with the Sinai Covenant, especially with its prohibition of idols. The chapter argues that far from being something Christians should be against, secularization represents an authentic consequence of biblical faith. This is why it is no mere accident that secularization arose first within the culture of the so-called Christian West, in the history within which the biblical religions have made their most telling impact. As such, rather than oppose it, the task of Christians should be to support and nourish it.Less
This chapter studies the biblical sources of secularization, showing how three pivotal elements in the biblical faith have each given rise to one aspect of secularization. The disenchantment of nature begins with the Creation; the desacralization of politics with the Exodus; and the deconsecration of values with the Sinai Covenant, especially with its prohibition of idols. The chapter argues that far from being something Christians should be against, secularization represents an authentic consequence of biblical faith. This is why it is no mere accident that secularization arose first within the culture of the so-called Christian West, in the history within which the biblical religions have made their most telling impact. As such, rather than oppose it, the task of Christians should be to support and nourish it.
Charles Ramble
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195154146
- eISBN:
- 9780199868513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195154146.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Te may be culturally conservative, but it is by no means impervious to change. While the mechanisms for dealing with limited change have been discussed in previous chapters, the Conclusion examines ...
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Te may be culturally conservative, but it is by no means impervious to change. While the mechanisms for dealing with limited change have been discussed in previous chapters, the Conclusion examines the more substantial developments that are likely to come about as a consequence of “radical transcendence.” The resulting disenchantment—to use Weber's term—entails the irrevocable retreat of “sublime values” from a rational and secularised world. Evidence for this process in Te is found by re‐examining its laws and identifying the disappearance of some of the most complex institutions that were seen to be central to its civil religion. However, using analogies from Indo‐European linguistics and the status of transcendence in European religion, it is suggested that the conspicuous phenomenon of disenchantment is constantly balanced by a less visible process of re‐enchantment, and evidence for the latter can be found in the case of Te.Less
Te may be culturally conservative, but it is by no means impervious to change. While the mechanisms for dealing with limited change have been discussed in previous chapters, the Conclusion examines the more substantial developments that are likely to come about as a consequence of “radical transcendence.” The resulting disenchantment—to use Weber's term—entails the irrevocable retreat of “sublime values” from a rational and secularised world. Evidence for this process in Te is found by re‐examining its laws and identifying the disappearance of some of the most complex institutions that were seen to be central to its civil religion. However, using analogies from Indo‐European linguistics and the status of transcendence in European religion, it is suggested that the conspicuous phenomenon of disenchantment is constantly balanced by a less visible process of re‐enchantment, and evidence for the latter can be found in the case of Te.
Wesley A. Kort
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195143423
- eISBN:
- 9780199834389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195143426.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
Disenchantment is a condition resulting from the unwarranted elevation of scientific and rational strategies of analysis to the level of determining the general position of people in the world. This ...
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Disenchantment is a condition resulting from the unwarranted elevation of scientific and rational strategies of analysis to the level of determining the general position of people in the world. This dissolves the basic relations people have with their world and allows for the exercise of power and extension of self‐interest. He counters with proposals that would allow for the reenchantment of the world.Less
Disenchantment is a condition resulting from the unwarranted elevation of scientific and rational strategies of analysis to the level of determining the general position of people in the world. This dissolves the basic relations people have with their world and allows for the exercise of power and extension of self‐interest. He counters with proposals that would allow for the reenchantment of the world.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131376
- eISBN:
- 9780199834570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131371.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and ...
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Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and supporters of the war condemned the protesters. A sense of moral and spiritual disenchantment accompanied these culture wars, along with widespread criticism of American claims to being a nation chosen by God. In addition to describing the end of “victory culture,” and the dismantling of stereotypical distinctions between good cowboys and bad Indians, this chapter points to the important contributions made to American society by the civil rights movement. This discussion of civil rights focuses on the influence of the school of religious thought known as personalism on Martin Luther King Jr. and its linkages to long‐standing American trends of religious individualism.Less
Disillusion with American culture became widespread during the Vietnam War as protesters condemned the immorality of the war and the military industrial establishment that supported it, and supporters of the war condemned the protesters. A sense of moral and spiritual disenchantment accompanied these culture wars, along with widespread criticism of American claims to being a nation chosen by God. In addition to describing the end of “victory culture,” and the dismantling of stereotypical distinctions between good cowboys and bad Indians, this chapter points to the important contributions made to American society by the civil rights movement. This discussion of civil rights focuses on the influence of the school of religious thought known as personalism on Martin Luther King Jr. and its linkages to long‐standing American trends of religious individualism.
John A. Hall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153261
- eISBN:
- 9781400847495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153261.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter explores the alienation of many modern intellectuals. Perhaps the modern world is bereft of meaning, but the affluence provided by modern science means that for the vast majority of ...
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This chapter explores the alienation of many modern intellectuals. Perhaps the modern world is bereft of meaning, but the affluence provided by modern science means that for the vast majority of people, the world has probably never been so enchanted. The romantic nostalgia so characteristic of modernist ideas is unlikely to have any general appeal once industrial conditions have been established. Curiously, there is very little empirical investigation into the purported misery of modern men and women, and certainly few findings to back up the view that disenchantment dominates most of social life. In contrast, there is a massive amount of evidence supporting the view of people being distracted from questions of meaning by the demands of status competition. This leads to the central point: artists and intellectuals have their own particular worries, and so may not give an accurate report on modern social conditions.Less
This chapter explores the alienation of many modern intellectuals. Perhaps the modern world is bereft of meaning, but the affluence provided by modern science means that for the vast majority of people, the world has probably never been so enchanted. The romantic nostalgia so characteristic of modernist ideas is unlikely to have any general appeal once industrial conditions have been established. Curiously, there is very little empirical investigation into the purported misery of modern men and women, and certainly few findings to back up the view that disenchantment dominates most of social life. In contrast, there is a massive amount of evidence supporting the view of people being distracted from questions of meaning by the demands of status competition. This leads to the central point: artists and intellectuals have their own particular worries, and so may not give an accurate report on modern social conditions.
Jeffrey L. Kosky
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226451060
- eISBN:
- 9780226451084
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451084.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by “the disenchantment of the world.” Max Weber’s statement remains a dominant interpretation of the ...
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The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by “the disenchantment of the world.” Max Weber’s statement remains a dominant interpretation of the modern condition: the increasing capabilities of knowledge and science have banished mysteries, leaving a world that can be mastered technically and intellectually. And though this idea seems empowering, many people have faced modern disenchantment. Using intimate encounters with works of art to explore disenchantment and the possibilities of re-enchantment, this book addresses questions about the nature of humanity, the world, and God in the wake of Weber’s diagnosis of modernity. It focuses on a handful of artists—Walter De Maria, Diller and Scofidio, James Turrell, and Andy Goldworthy—to show how they introduce spaces hospitable to mystery and wonder, redemption and revelation, and transcendence and creation. What might be thought of as religious longings, the book argues, are crucial aspects of enchanting secularity when developed through encounters with these works of art. Developing a model of religion that might be significant to secular culture, it shows how this model can be employed to deepen interpretation of the art we usually view as representing secular modernity.Less
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by “the disenchantment of the world.” Max Weber’s statement remains a dominant interpretation of the modern condition: the increasing capabilities of knowledge and science have banished mysteries, leaving a world that can be mastered technically and intellectually. And though this idea seems empowering, many people have faced modern disenchantment. Using intimate encounters with works of art to explore disenchantment and the possibilities of re-enchantment, this book addresses questions about the nature of humanity, the world, and God in the wake of Weber’s diagnosis of modernity. It focuses on a handful of artists—Walter De Maria, Diller and Scofidio, James Turrell, and Andy Goldworthy—to show how they introduce spaces hospitable to mystery and wonder, redemption and revelation, and transcendence and creation. What might be thought of as religious longings, the book argues, are crucial aspects of enchanting secularity when developed through encounters with these works of art. Developing a model of religion that might be significant to secular culture, it shows how this model can be employed to deepen interpretation of the art we usually view as representing secular modernity.
Christopher Castiglia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479818273
- eISBN:
- 9781479820030
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479818273.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
As the “hermeneutics of suspicion” as a critical disposition comes under fire, The Practice of Hope examines models of “critique” resistant to disenchantment. This book offers hope as an alternative ...
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As the “hermeneutics of suspicion” as a critical disposition comes under fire, The Practice of Hope examines models of “critique” resistant to disenchantment. This book offers hope as an alternative disposition, combining idealism and imagination to create and sustain the visionary values that, however closeted, animate genuine social critique. Hope’s “useable past,” the book contends, comprises mid-twentieth-century critics (Granville Hicks, Constance Rourke, F. O. Matthiessen, Richard Chase, Newton Arvin, R. W. B. Lewis, Lewis Mumford, C. L. R. James, Charles Feidelson, Marius Bewley, Richard Poirier), who wrote during a period worthy of disenchantment but who refused to replicate Cold War state epistemologies—hunting for nefarious and abstract agents hidden beneath seemingly innocent surfaces—melancholically retained by much criticism today. Instead, they transformed the socialist politics of the 1930s into critiques centered on dissent, collectivism, and wonder, making criticism more than a tale of disenchantment. . Organized around “empty signifiers” typically anathema to critics today—nationalism, liberalism, humanism, symbolism—The Practice of Hope shows how, following the creative uses of those terms by midcentury critics, we might reinvigorate critique, turning imaginative idealism into a new critical disposition. Criticism, the book argues, might again be a practice of hope.Less
As the “hermeneutics of suspicion” as a critical disposition comes under fire, The Practice of Hope examines models of “critique” resistant to disenchantment. This book offers hope as an alternative disposition, combining idealism and imagination to create and sustain the visionary values that, however closeted, animate genuine social critique. Hope’s “useable past,” the book contends, comprises mid-twentieth-century critics (Granville Hicks, Constance Rourke, F. O. Matthiessen, Richard Chase, Newton Arvin, R. W. B. Lewis, Lewis Mumford, C. L. R. James, Charles Feidelson, Marius Bewley, Richard Poirier), who wrote during a period worthy of disenchantment but who refused to replicate Cold War state epistemologies—hunting for nefarious and abstract agents hidden beneath seemingly innocent surfaces—melancholically retained by much criticism today. Instead, they transformed the socialist politics of the 1930s into critiques centered on dissent, collectivism, and wonder, making criticism more than a tale of disenchantment. . Organized around “empty signifiers” typically anathema to critics today—nationalism, liberalism, humanism, symbolism—The Practice of Hope shows how, following the creative uses of those terms by midcentury critics, we might reinvigorate critique, turning imaginative idealism into a new critical disposition. Criticism, the book argues, might again be a practice of hope.
John Kekes
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199588886
- eISBN:
- 9780191595448
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588886.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
A society's system of values is sustained by the allegiance of its inhabitants. A pervasive sense of disenchantment is the most serious problem for the cultural dimension of values as it exists in ...
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A society's system of values is sustained by the allegiance of its inhabitants. A pervasive sense of disenchantment is the most serious problem for the cultural dimension of values as it exists in contemporary Western societies. Many religiously committed thinkers argue that our present disenchantment is the result of the widespread rejection of religious belief and the secularization of Western life. This chapter provides a secular alternative to the religious view and argues that the cultural dimension of our system of values has ample resources for coping with such disenchantment as there is. The alternatives center on exemplars that exemplify inspiring ideals of a large variety of conceptions of well‐being. The nature and identity of exemplars is discussed and explained.Less
A society's system of values is sustained by the allegiance of its inhabitants. A pervasive sense of disenchantment is the most serious problem for the cultural dimension of values as it exists in contemporary Western societies. Many religiously committed thinkers argue that our present disenchantment is the result of the widespread rejection of religious belief and the secularization of Western life. This chapter provides a secular alternative to the religious view and argues that the cultural dimension of our system of values has ample resources for coping with such disenchantment as there is. The alternatives center on exemplars that exemplify inspiring ideals of a large variety of conceptions of well‐being. The nature and identity of exemplars is discussed and explained.
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
In academic no less than popular thought, India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Disenchanting India qualifies this representation through an analysis of the ...
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In academic no less than popular thought, India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Disenchanting India qualifies this representation through an analysis of the contemporary Indian rationalist organisations (those that affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism or free-thinking).To understand the genesis of organised rationalism in India the book addresses the rationalists’ emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India lies an ethnography of the organisation “Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti” (Organisation for the Eradication of Superstition) based in Maharashtra. This account describes the organization’s efforts to promote a scientific temper and combat the beliefs and practices it regards as superstitious. It also includes an analysis of rationalism in the day to day lives of its members and in relation to the organization’s controversial position within Indian society.The book outlines the distinguishing characteristics of this organisation through a depiction of the rationalists’ specific “mode of unbelief” in comparison to “modes of religiosity”. Alongside a critical engagement with the work of Max Weber and Charles Taylor, the theoretical discussion of modes of unbelief further provides an original basis for comparative studies of similar movements in a trans-cultural perspective. Finally, Disenchanting India can be situated within the contemporary debates about the nature of rationalism in Indian intellectual life and cultural politics. It thereby engages with debates that are as crucial for Anthropology and Religious Studies as they are for Post-colonial Studies, Sociology and History.Less
In academic no less than popular thought, India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Disenchanting India qualifies this representation through an analysis of the contemporary Indian rationalist organisations (those that affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism or free-thinking).To understand the genesis of organised rationalism in India the book addresses the rationalists’ emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India lies an ethnography of the organisation “Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti” (Organisation for the Eradication of Superstition) based in Maharashtra. This account describes the organization’s efforts to promote a scientific temper and combat the beliefs and practices it regards as superstitious. It also includes an analysis of rationalism in the day to day lives of its members and in relation to the organization’s controversial position within Indian society.The book outlines the distinguishing characteristics of this organisation through a depiction of the rationalists’ specific “mode of unbelief” in comparison to “modes of religiosity”. Alongside a critical engagement with the work of Max Weber and Charles Taylor, the theoretical discussion of modes of unbelief further provides an original basis for comparative studies of similar movements in a trans-cultural perspective. Finally, Disenchanting India can be situated within the contemporary debates about the nature of rationalism in Indian intellectual life and cultural politics. It thereby engages with debates that are as crucial for Anthropology and Religious Studies as they are for Post-colonial Studies, Sociology and History.
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The Introduction provides an overview of the structure and arguments of the book. On the basis of a brief description of the Indian rationalist movement and the relevance of the work of Ulrich ...
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The Introduction provides an overview of the structure and arguments of the book. On the basis of a brief description of the Indian rationalist movement and the relevance of the work of Ulrich Berner, Charles Taylor, Max Weber and various post-colonial scholars, the introduction highlights the ways in which Disenchanting India makes an important empirical as well as theoretical contribution to a field of study that has widely been neglected: the spectrum of non-religiosity and unbelief in India, from religious indifferences to outright criticism of religion(s).Less
The Introduction provides an overview of the structure and arguments of the book. On the basis of a brief description of the Indian rationalist movement and the relevance of the work of Ulrich Berner, Charles Taylor, Max Weber and various post-colonial scholars, the introduction highlights the ways in which Disenchanting India makes an important empirical as well as theoretical contribution to a field of study that has widely been neglected: the spectrum of non-religiosity and unbelief in India, from religious indifferences to outright criticism of religion(s).
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The third chapter distinguishes between the notions rationality, rationalism, and rationalisation as employed by Max Weber and reviews the way in which Weber and Charles Taylor understand the concept ...
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The third chapter distinguishes between the notions rationality, rationalism, and rationalisation as employed by Max Weber and reviews the way in which Weber and Charles Taylor understand the concept of disenchantment. The argument here is that Indian rationalists’ attempt to disenchant India on the basis of their belief that there are no mysterious incalculable forces that exist in the world. According to them, all things can, in principle, be explained by modern science. Further, reasons are given as to why some of Taylor's insights are drawn on in the ethnographic section in particular, without a full subscription to his larger theoretical approach.Less
The third chapter distinguishes between the notions rationality, rationalism, and rationalisation as employed by Max Weber and reviews the way in which Weber and Charles Taylor understand the concept of disenchantment. The argument here is that Indian rationalists’ attempt to disenchant India on the basis of their belief that there are no mysterious incalculable forces that exist in the world. According to them, all things can, in principle, be explained by modern science. Further, reasons are given as to why some of Taylor's insights are drawn on in the ethnographic section in particular, without a full subscription to his larger theoretical approach.
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter gives an ethnographic account of how ANiS activists use their science-vans to “disenchant India”, i.e. they conduct programmes at schools, colleges and villages with the aim of ...
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This chapter gives an ethnographic account of how ANiS activists use their science-vans to “disenchant India”, i.e. they conduct programmes at schools, colleges and villages with the aim of “spreading scientific temper” and “eradicating superstition”. After a description of the science-van, the general structure of an ANiS programme is provided, with a special focus on the way in which ANiS activists expose and explain alleged miracles performed by godmen. It also discusses why the rationalists aim to inculcate doubt and a “spirit of inquiry” amongst their fellow Indians. Finally, the chapter analyses the specific perspective taken by ANiS activists on issues such as the existence of ghosts, the reasons for spirit possession, and also addresses the issue of a gendered rationalistic discourse.Less
This chapter gives an ethnographic account of how ANiS activists use their science-vans to “disenchant India”, i.e. they conduct programmes at schools, colleges and villages with the aim of “spreading scientific temper” and “eradicating superstition”. After a description of the science-van, the general structure of an ANiS programme is provided, with a special focus on the way in which ANiS activists expose and explain alleged miracles performed by godmen. It also discusses why the rationalists aim to inculcate doubt and a “spirit of inquiry” amongst their fellow Indians. Finally, the chapter analyses the specific perspective taken by ANiS activists on issues such as the existence of ghosts, the reasons for spirit possession, and also addresses the issue of a gendered rationalistic discourse.
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The epilogue raises three questions which help to contextualize the description and analysis of ANiS within a broader context: Raised first is the empirical question as to what degree the Indian ...
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The epilogue raises three questions which help to contextualize the description and analysis of ANiS within a broader context: Raised first is the empirical question as to what degree the Indian rationalist movement can be seen to be part of a global rationalist movement which spread from the 19th century onwards and which also includes, for example, “New Atheists” such as Richard Dawkins. Secondly, on the basis of various materialistic and instrumentalist perspectives on death, the theoretical question is raised as to what degree the concepts of disenchantment and rationalisation help to situate the aims and activities, as well as the specific mode of unbelief of the Indian rationalists, within a larger trans-cultural and trans-historical perspective. Third comes the meta-theoretical, reflexive question of the role of the narratives of disenchantment and rationalisation and the debates around “rationality” within the Cultural Sciences, as well as in Indian intellectual life and cultural politics, and what consequences these might have for attempts to research rationalism in a wider perspective.Less
The epilogue raises three questions which help to contextualize the description and analysis of ANiS within a broader context: Raised first is the empirical question as to what degree the Indian rationalist movement can be seen to be part of a global rationalist movement which spread from the 19th century onwards and which also includes, for example, “New Atheists” such as Richard Dawkins. Secondly, on the basis of various materialistic and instrumentalist perspectives on death, the theoretical question is raised as to what degree the concepts of disenchantment and rationalisation help to situate the aims and activities, as well as the specific mode of unbelief of the Indian rationalists, within a larger trans-cultural and trans-historical perspective. Third comes the meta-theoretical, reflexive question of the role of the narratives of disenchantment and rationalisation and the debates around “rationality” within the Cultural Sciences, as well as in Indian intellectual life and cultural politics, and what consequences these might have for attempts to research rationalism in a wider perspective.
Robert A. Yelle
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226585451
- eISBN:
- 9780226585628
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585628.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The book draws on evidence from the Hebrew Bible to English deism, and from the Aztecs to ancient India, to develop a theory of polity that finds a place and a purpose for those aspects of religion ...
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The book draws on evidence from the Hebrew Bible to English deism, and from the Aztecs to ancient India, to develop a theory of polity that finds a place and a purpose for those aspects of religion that are often marginalized and dismissed as irrational by Enlightenment liberalism and utilitarianism. Developing a close analogy between two elemental domains of society, Sovereignty and the Sacred offers a new theory of religion while suggesting alternative ways of organizing our political and economic life. By rethinking the transcendent foundations and liberating potential of both religion and politics, Yelle points to more hopeful and ethical modes of collective life based on egalitarianism and popular sovereignty. Deliberately countering the narrowness of currently dominant economic, political, and legal theories, he demonstrates the potential of a revived history of religions to contribute to a rethinking of the foundations of our political and social order.Less
The book draws on evidence from the Hebrew Bible to English deism, and from the Aztecs to ancient India, to develop a theory of polity that finds a place and a purpose for those aspects of religion that are often marginalized and dismissed as irrational by Enlightenment liberalism and utilitarianism. Developing a close analogy between two elemental domains of society, Sovereignty and the Sacred offers a new theory of religion while suggesting alternative ways of organizing our political and economic life. By rethinking the transcendent foundations and liberating potential of both religion and politics, Yelle points to more hopeful and ethical modes of collective life based on egalitarianism and popular sovereignty. Deliberately countering the narrowness of currently dominant economic, political, and legal theories, he demonstrates the potential of a revived history of religions to contribute to a rethinking of the foundations of our political and social order.
Sean C. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195393408
- eISBN:
- 9780199894390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393408.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The growth of pentecostalism in South Korea since the 1950s, fueled largely by divine healing practices, is symbolized by the Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest Christian congregation, ...
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The growth of pentecostalism in South Korea since the 1950s, fueled largely by divine healing practices, is symbolized by the Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest Christian congregation, founded by David Yonggi Cho. Korea is second only to the United States in number of overseas missionaries. Ironically, divine healing first emerged in Presbyterian churches founded by “cessationist” Western missionaries who believed miracles had ended. Despite the “disenchantment” of the Western worldview, because missionaries emphasized native initiative in church planting, Korean evangelists were able to use divine healing and exorcism in conversion. In 1923, the Korean Presbyterian Church abandoned the doctrine of cessationism. Pentecostalism was appealing because it drew on traditional Korean cosmology of spirits and the supernatural and also presented Christianity as more effective than other religions in meeting this-worldly needs. It is misleading to reduce Korean pentecostal healing to “shamanism”; healing is better understood as indigenization of Christianity.Less
The growth of pentecostalism in South Korea since the 1950s, fueled largely by divine healing practices, is symbolized by the Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest Christian congregation, founded by David Yonggi Cho. Korea is second only to the United States in number of overseas missionaries. Ironically, divine healing first emerged in Presbyterian churches founded by “cessationist” Western missionaries who believed miracles had ended. Despite the “disenchantment” of the Western worldview, because missionaries emphasized native initiative in church planting, Korean evangelists were able to use divine healing and exorcism in conversion. In 1923, the Korean Presbyterian Church abandoned the doctrine of cessationism. Pentecostalism was appealing because it drew on traditional Korean cosmology of spirits and the supernatural and also presented Christianity as more effective than other religions in meeting this-worldly needs. It is misleading to reduce Korean pentecostal healing to “shamanism”; healing is better understood as indigenization of Christianity.
Andrew Frayn
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719089220
- eISBN:
- 9781781707333
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089220.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The ...
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This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The objects of disenchantment are often the very same as the enchantments of scientific progress: bureaucracy, homogenisation and capitalism. Older beliefs such as religion, courage and honour are kept in view, and endure longer than often is realised. Social critics, theorists and commentators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide a rich and previously unexplored context for wartime and post-war literature. The rise of the disenchanted narrative to its predominance in the War Books Boom of 1928 – 1930 is charted from the turn of the century in texts, archival material, sales and review data. Rarely-studied popular and middlebrow novels are analysed alongside well-known highbrow texts: D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West rub shoulders with forgotten figures such as Gilbert Frankau and Ernest Raymond. These sometimes jarring juxtapositions show the strained relationship between enchantment and disenchantment in the war and the post-war decade.Less
This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The objects of disenchantment are often the very same as the enchantments of scientific progress: bureaucracy, homogenisation and capitalism. Older beliefs such as religion, courage and honour are kept in view, and endure longer than often is realised. Social critics, theorists and commentators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide a rich and previously unexplored context for wartime and post-war literature. The rise of the disenchanted narrative to its predominance in the War Books Boom of 1928 – 1930 is charted from the turn of the century in texts, archival material, sales and review data. Rarely-studied popular and middlebrow novels are analysed alongside well-known highbrow texts: D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West rub shoulders with forgotten figures such as Gilbert Frankau and Ernest Raymond. These sometimes jarring juxtapositions show the strained relationship between enchantment and disenchantment in the war and the post-war decade.
Alan Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148403
- eISBN:
- 9781400841950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148403.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
In this chapter, the author reflects on culture and what he calls “liberal anxieties.” He begins with a little autobiography, mentioning his education to make a general point about the idea of ...
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In this chapter, the author reflects on culture and what he calls “liberal anxieties.” He begins with a little autobiography, mentioning his education to make a general point about the idea of meritocracy and the pursuit of excellence. Liberalism has a natural affinity with meritocracy; it is attracted to an aristocracy of talent and critical of an aristocracy of birth. The author proceeds by discussing three major anxieties from which liberalism has suffered for 200 years, along with the fear of brutalization in Britain and America, anxiety about secularization and disenchantment, and the liberal response to terror. He also examines the interrelationships between politics, culture, and education before concluding with some remarks about the virtues of science and poetry as foundations of a liberal education.Less
In this chapter, the author reflects on culture and what he calls “liberal anxieties.” He begins with a little autobiography, mentioning his education to make a general point about the idea of meritocracy and the pursuit of excellence. Liberalism has a natural affinity with meritocracy; it is attracted to an aristocracy of talent and critical of an aristocracy of birth. The author proceeds by discussing three major anxieties from which liberalism has suffered for 200 years, along with the fear of brutalization in Britain and America, anxiety about secularization and disenchantment, and the liberal response to terror. He also examines the interrelationships between politics, culture, and education before concluding with some remarks about the virtues of science and poetry as foundations of a liberal education.
Joshua Landy and Michael Saler (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804752992
- eISBN:
- 9780804787499
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804752992.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as “disenchanted.” There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max ...
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This is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as “disenchanted.” There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the “progressive disenchantment of the world.” Yet what is less often recognized is the fact that a powerful counter-tendency runs alongside this one, an overwhelming urge to fill the vacuum left by departed convictions, and to do so without invoking superseded belief systems. In fact, modernity produces an array of strategies for re-enchantment, each fully compatible with secular rationality. It has to, because God has many “aspects”—or to put it in more secular terms, because traditional religion offers so much in so many domains. From one thinker to the next, the question of just what, in religious enchantment, needs to be replaced in a secular world, receives an entirely different answer. Now, many of these strategies are laid out in a single volume, with contributions by specialists in literature, history, and philosophy.Less
This is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as “disenchanted.” There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the “progressive disenchantment of the world.” Yet what is less often recognized is the fact that a powerful counter-tendency runs alongside this one, an overwhelming urge to fill the vacuum left by departed convictions, and to do so without invoking superseded belief systems. In fact, modernity produces an array of strategies for re-enchantment, each fully compatible with secular rationality. It has to, because God has many “aspects”—or to put it in more secular terms, because traditional religion offers so much in so many domains. From one thinker to the next, the question of just what, in religious enchantment, needs to be replaced in a secular world, receives an entirely different answer. Now, many of these strategies are laid out in a single volume, with contributions by specialists in literature, history, and philosophy.
