Disenchantment of the World, The

By Gauchet, Marcel
Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN: 0691029377, $19.95

Marcel Gauchet has launched one of the most ambitious and controversial works of speculative history recently released, based on the contention that Christianity is "the religion of the end of religion."

In The Disenchantment of the World, Gauchet reinterprets the development of the modern West, with all its political and psychological complexities, in terms of mankind's changing relation to religion.

He views Western history as a movement away from religious society, beginning with prophetic Judaism, gaining tremendous momentum in Christianity, and eventually leading to the rise of the political state. Gauchet's view that monotheistic religion itself was a form of social revolution is rich with implications for readers in fields across the humanities and social sciences.