Contemporary Democracy and the Sacred: Rights, Religion and Ideology

Description

Debates on the impact of religious traditions upon secular politics have raged throughout the last century and continue today. Exposing the ambiguity of secularity in political life, Jon Wittrock investigates the contemporary relevance of the scared beyond established religious communities and within wider civic society. In the context of globalization, characterized by the spread of capitalist commodification and new technologies of transportation and communication, determining the legitimacy of democratic nation-states is particularly urgent. Questioning ontological challenges to democracy, this book confronts the public narratives, symbols and rituals of the political domain. It analyses modern scholarship on the impact of eschatological figures of thought on government and political ideologies, what hopes there are for universal rights or justice, and the “public worship” of contemporary democracies. Bridging the analytical and continental sides of the philosophical divide, this book draws upon conceptual analysis as well as phenomenology and deconstruction. It advocates neither a left- nor a right-wing political approach, but seeks to outline what political secularization could and should mean. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Chapter 1: Democracy, Authenticity, Critique 1.1 Religion and politics: Variations on a theme 1.2 Power, authenticity, and democracy 1.3 Secularization and the sacred: Possible buildings Chapter 2: Sacred Boundaries and Ethical Closure 2.1 Constitutive boundaries and sacralization 2.2 Meaningful autonomy over time Chapter 3: Axial Echoes in Global Space 3.1 Public worship beyond the state? 3.2 The state beyond public worship? Chapter 4: Back to Burgenland? 4.1 Toward a topology of the exceptional 4.2 Ethos, spiritual decompression, and fatal politics Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 References Index