Under the Spell of Freedom : Theory of Religion After Hegel and Nietzsche

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. Cover Under the Spell of Freedom Copyright Contents Preface Introduction: Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom and a Blind Spot in Present-​Day Hegelianism PART I. A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 1. Introductory Remarks 2. The Independence of Religion: Ernst Troeltsch 3. Secular Sacredness: Rudolf Otto 4. Self-​Evidence or Sense of Self-​Evidence?: Max Scheler PART II. SECULARIZATION AND THE MODERN HISTORY OF FREEDOM 1. Introductory Remarks 2. The Sacralization of Democracy: John Dewey 3. Post-​totalitarian Christianity: Alfred Döblin’s Religious Dialogues 4. The Contingency of Secularization: Reinhart Koselleck’s Theory of History 5. The Secular Option, Its Rise and Consequences: Charles Taylor PART III. THE SEARCH FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF FREEDOM 1. Introductory Remarks 2. A German Idea of Freedom?: Cassirer and Troeltsch between Germany and the West 3. Indebted Freedom: Paul Tillich 4. Sieve of Norms and Holy Scripture, Theonomy, and Freedom: Paul Ricœur 5. Communicative Freedom and Theology of Liberation: Wolfgang Huber PART IV. THE PROJECT OF A HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION 1. Introductory Remarks 2. Religion Is More Than Culture: H. Richard Niebuhr 3. Christianity and the Dangers of Self-​Sacralization: Werner Stark 4. More Weberian Than Weber?: David Martin 5. Religious Evolution and Symbolic Realism: Robert Bellah 6. Religion and Globalization: José Casanova Conclusion: Global History of Religion and Moral Universalism A Note on the Text Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index In Under the Spell of Freedom, Hans 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. He takes 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 to elaborate on this new understanding of religion and freedom, which encompasses a range of intellectual traditions and avoids Eurocentrism. Joas answers the empirical question of when, where, why, and how such a moral universalism emerged and developed.