is a great new book on religion and politics in the West.
Its author, Mark Lilla, is a fantastic scholar in the history of ideas.
The book argues that the West (Europe) was marked by a Great Separation
between political theology and political philosophy. Before Hobbes, European
politics was essentially framed in religious terms. After Hobbes, politics
becomes free from religion. Religious scholarship, as a result, is also profoundly changed.
Instead of focusing on God, it focuses on why men need religion. It is not anymore
about what exist out there, but what we need from inside us.
The book does not attempt to engage on present heated controversies on the role of religion in the public sphere and other such issues. Instead it calmly takes us through a rewarding jouney from the middle-age to the XX century illuminating the relationship between religious and political scholarship.
Highly recommended
2 comments:
I would recommend Jose Casanova's review of this book over at The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere: http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/immanent_frame/2007/12/07/the-great-separation/
Thanks for the suggestion, Patrick.
See also Lilla's reply to Casanova.
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