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.

Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Visiting Professor of Sociology and Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Among his numerous prizes are the Max Planck Research Award in 2015; the Prix Paul Ricoeur in 2017; and the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award of the German Sociological Association in 2022. Some of his books in English include The Power of the Sacred (Oxford, 2021); G.H. Mead, A Contemporary Re-examination of His Thought, Pragmatism and Social Theory; The Creativity of Action, The Genesis of Values, War and Modernity, The Sacredness of the Person: A New Genealogy of Human Rights, and Faith as an Option: Possible Futures for Christianity. He has also published two books with Wolfgang Knoebl: Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures and War in Social Thought: Hobbes to the Present and has edited several volumes, including The Axial Age and Its Consequences (with Robert Bellah).

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
Chapter 1: Introductory Remarks: A New Understanding of Religion in the Early Twentieth Century
Chapter 2: The Independence of Religion: Ernst Troeltsch
Chapter 3: Secular Sacredness: Rudolf Otto
Chapter 4: Self-Evidence of Sense of Self-Evidence: Max Scheler
Part II: Secularization and the Modern History of Freedom
Chapter 5: Introductory Remarks: Secularization and the Modern History of Freedom
Chapter 6: The Sacralization of Democracy: John Dewey
Chapter 7: Post-Totalitarian Christianity: Alfred Döblin's Religious Dialogues
Chapter 8: The Contingency of Secularization: Reinhart Koselleck's Theory of History
Chapter 9: The Secular Option, Its Rise and Consequences: Charles Taylor
Part III: The Search for a Different Kind of Freedom
Chapter 10: Introductory Remarks: The Search for a Different Kind of Freedom
Chapter 11: A German Idea of Freedom? Cassirer and Troeltsch Between Germany and the West
Chapter 12: Indebted Freedom: Paul Tillich
Chapter 13: Sieve of Norms and Holy Scripture, Theonomy and Freedom: Paul Ricoeur
Chapter 14: Communicative Freedom and Theology of Liberation: Wolfgang Huber
Part IV: The Project of a Historical Sociology of Religion
Chapter 15: The Project of a Historical Sociology of Religion
Chapter 16: Religion is More than Culture: H. Richard Niebuhr
Chapter 17: Christianity and the Dangers of Self-Sacralization: Werner Stark
Chapter 18: More Weberian Than Weber?: David Martin
Chapter 19: Religious Evolution and Symbolic Realism: Robert Bellah
Chapter 20: Religion and Globalization: José Casanova
Conclusion: Global History of Religion and Moral Universalism
Notes
Index