Modern People and Religion (Second Edition)

Author: Georg Simmel
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Modern people neither faithfully adhere to any existing religion nor feign [clarity] by claiming that religion is merely a human illusion, from which humanity will gradually awaken. Yet, facing such a fact, modern people fall into extreme anxiety. They discover that while religion, in its historical development, differs vastly from profound metaphysics, emotional values, rich ethics, and spiritual meaning, these differences concern only the content of religious belief, not the reason for its stance on reality. All religiosity contains a unique blend of selfless devotion and obsessive pursuit, submission and resistance, the immediacy of the senses and the abstraction of the spirit. This creates a certain emotional tension, a particularly sincere and stable inner relationship, and a subjective stance toward a higher order—where the subject also regards the order as something within itself. — Simmel
This book comprehensively elaborates on Simmel's post-religious theory of religion, building upon his work On Religion. His religious thought spans three dimensions: religious sociology, the religious perspective of "life philosophy," and the religious perspective of modern cultural theory. Simmel's religious theory, in theological terms, can be connected to Kierkegaard's individualistic theory of faith, compared with Barth and Bultmann's dialectical theology, particularly the distinction between "Christliness" and "Christianity." In social thought, it can be compared with Weber and Luhmann's liberal religious theories. In socializing Christian thought, Simmel's contributions rival those of Troeltsch. Simmel is the most prolific classical social thinker in terms of religious theory, although Durkheim and Weber have more extensive writings on religious theory, neither covers as broad a scope as Simmel.