Sacralization and Desacralization: Political Domination and Religious Interpretation
In my writings on the history of human rights, the Axial Age, and the genesis of values, I have treated the experience of self-transcendence and the attribution of sacredness as a fundamental anthropological phenomenon. But this fundamental fact of ideal formation has a flip side: The sacralization...
| Published in: | Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Philosophy Documentation Center
[2016]
|
| In: |
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy CD Christianity and Culture CG Christianity and Politics NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In my writings on the history of human rights, the Axial Age, and the genesis of values, I have treated the experience of self-transcendence and the attribution of sacredness as a fundamental anthropological phenomenon. But this fundamental fact of ideal formation has a flip side: The sacralization of particular meanings is originally always also the sacralization of a collectivity. This I call the danger of self-sacralization. In this contribution I offer a brief, historically oriented sociological sketch of the tensions between religion and politics in light of this assumption, discuss H. Richard Niebuhr's relevance for this area of study, and illustrate my thesis with regard to contemporary cases where the danger of self-sacralization is particularly urgent. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2326-2176 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Society of Christian Ethics, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/sce.2016.0029 |