The Death of Secular Messianism

The Death of Secular Messianism argues that, the claims of secularists notwithstanding, modernity did not so much abandon humanity's historic search for the divine, but rather transposed it into a new, innerworldly key. This secret religion of high modernity came in both positivistic and humanistic variants. The first sought to overcome finitude by means of scientific and technological progress. The second sought to overcome contingency by creating a collective Subject--the Modern Democratic State or the Communist Party--in and through which human beings would become the masters of their own destiny. In making his case for this thesis, the author outlines a new political-theological and social-theoretical perspective which saves what is best in modernity--its focus on human creative activity and its commitment to rational autonomy and democratic citizenship--while re-engaging humanity's great spiritual traditions.