World Religions and Social ThoughtFrom Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber to Jürgen Habermas and Hans Joas

Björn Wittrock

doi:10.22529/sp.2025.65.08

Authors

Björn Wittrock Uppsala University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22529/sp.2025.65.08

Keywords:

world religions , social theory , modernity, secularization, transcendence

Abstract

This paper was drafted on occasion of Hans Joas’ 70th birthday, and published in German, in the book edited by M. Schlette, B. Hollstein, M. Jung and W. Knobl (2022), under the title Idealbildung, Sakralisierung, Religion. Beiträge zu Hans Joas’ Die Macht des Heiligen. After highlighting the contributions of Joas’ social philosophy, Wittrock shows the main traits of the history of social theory regarding the scientific research of world religions. This reconstruction places the questions asked and the answers provided within their historical context, while at the same time it identifies some persisting questions, such as the place and role of world religions compared to other religious phenomena, or that of the relationship between Christianity and Modernity. Further, a central asset of this article is the reconstruction of the sociological and philosophical understanding of the Axial Age. After these preparatory and reconstructive parts, Wittrock focuses his analysis upon the most recent works —until then— of Habermas and Joas regarding the discourse on the Axial Age, in order to show their tensions and inherent capabilities facing the current experiences of secularization and transcendence.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Arjomand, S. A. (2004). Transformations of the Islamicate Civilization. In Johann P. Arnason and Björn Wittrock (Eds.), Eurasian Transformations, Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissences (pp. 213-245). Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047414674_012

Arnason, J. P. (2003). Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004405424

Arnason, J. P. (2004). The Axial Age and Its Interpreters: Reopening a Debate. In J. P. Arnason, S. N. Eisenstadt, & B. Wittrock (Eds.), Axial Civilizations and World History. Brill.

Arnason, J. P., Eisenstadt, S. N., & Wittrock, B. (Eds.). (2005). Axial civilizations and world history. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047405788

Bellah, R. N. (2005). What is Axial About the Axial Age? European Journal of Sociology, 46(1), 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975605000032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975605000032

Bellah, R. N. (2011). Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Belknap Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674063099

Bellah, R. N., & Joas, H. (2012). The Axial Age and its Consequences. Belknap Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2jbs61

Daedalus. (1975). Daedalus, 104(2). https://www.jstor.org/stable/20024323

Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. Harvard University Press.

Eisenstadt, S. N. (1963). The Political Systems of Empires. The Free Press of Glencoe.

Eisenstadt, S. N. (1986). The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations. State University of New York Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/book10189

Eisenstadt, S. N. (Ed.). (1987). Kulturen der Achsenzeit I: Ihre Ursprünge und ihre Vielfalt, Teil 1: Griechenland, Israel, Mesopotamien. Teil 2: Spätantike, Indien, China, Islam. Suhrkamp.

Eisenstadt, S. N. (Ed.). (1992). Kulturen der Achsenzeit II: Ihre institutionelle und kulturelle Dynamik, Teil 1: China, Japan. Teil 2: Indien. Teil 3: Buddhismus, Islam, Altägypten, westliche Kultur. Suhrkamp.

Eisenstadt, S. N. (1996). Japanese Civilization: A Comparative View. University of Chicago Press.

Eisenstadt, S. N. (1999). Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution: The Jacobin Dimension of Modernity. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511520822

Eisenstadt, S. N. (2005). The Great Revolutions and the Civilizations of Modernity. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047417651

Eisenstadt, S. N., Arnason, J. P., & Wittrock, B. (2005). Axial Civilizations and World History. Brill.

Habermas, J. (2019). Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (vols. 1 & 2). Suhrkamp.

Heilbron, J., Wittrock, B., & Magnusson, L. (Eds). (2001). The Rise of the Social Sciences and the Formation of Modernity: Conceptual Change in Context, 1750-1850. Springer.

Hughes, H. S. (1958). Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of European Social Thought, 1890-1930. Knopf.

Jaspers, K. (1953). The Origin and Goal of History. Yale University Press.

Joas, H. (1996). The Creativity of Action. Polity Press. (Original work published in 1992).

Joas, H. (2001). The Genesis of Values. University Chicago Press. (Original work published in 1997).

Joas, H. (2013). The Sacredness of the Person: A New Genealogy of Human Rights. Georgetown University Press. (Original work published in 2011). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/book26573

Joas, H. (2017). Die Macht des Heiligen: Eine Alternative zur Geschichte von der Entzauberung. Suhrkamp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3196/2194584518714147

Joas, H. & Knöbl, W. (2009). Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures (A. Skinner, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published in 2004). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139878432

Kuenen, A. (1883). Volksreligion und Weltreligion: Fünf Hibbert-Vorlesungen. Reimer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111494586

Marchand, S. L. (2009). German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship. Cambridge University Press.

Pankenier, D. W. (2013). Astrology and cosmology in early China: Conforming earth to heaven. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139017466

Parson, T. (1966). Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Prentice Hall.

Pommeranz, K. (2000). The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400823499

Puett, M. J. (2001). The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Ancient China. Stanford University Press.

Puett, M. J. (2002). To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice and Self-Divination in Early China. Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Schluchter, W. (1996). Paradoxes of Modernity: Culture and Conduct in the Theory of Max Weber. Stanford University Press.

Schluchter, W. (1998). Die Entstehung des modernen Rationalismus: Eine Analyse von Max Webers Entwicklungsgeschichte des Okzidents. Suhrkamp.

Schluchter, W. & Graf, F. W. (Eds.). (2005). Asketischer Protestantismus und der ‘Geist’ des modernen Kapitalismus. Moor Siebeck.

Stroumsa, G. G. (2018). Anquetil Duperron et les origines de la philologie orientale: l'orientalisme est un humanisme. ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, (13), 161-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/asdi.2018.1129

Taylor, C. (2007). A Secular Age. Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674044289

Troeltsch, E. (1923). Die Soziallehren der cristlichen Kirchen und Gruppen. Mohr Siebeck. (Original work published in 1912).

Troeltsch, E. (1924). Der Historismus und seine Überwindung: Fünf Vorträge von Ernst Troeltsch. Pan Verlag Rolf Heise.

Weber, M. (1978). Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie. Mohr Siebeck.

Weber, M. (1991a). Nachwort des Herausgebers, 1. Das Interesse an den Weltreligionen am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges und das Problem der Wirtschaftsethik. In Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe: Band I/19: Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen. Konfuzianismus und Taoismus. Schriften 1915-1920. Mohr Siebeck.

Weber, M. (1991b). Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (vols. 1-3). Mohr Siebeck.