Politics and the Sacred (Hardcover)

This path-breaking book argues that practices of the sacred are constitutive of modern secular politics. Following a tradition of enquiry in anthropology and political theory, it examines how limit situations shape the political imagination and collective identity. As an experiential and cultural fact, the sacred emerges within, and simultaneously transcends, transgressive dynamics such as revolutions, wars or globalisation. Rather than conceive the sacred as a religious doctrine or a metaphysical belief, Wydra examines its adaptive functions as origins, truths and order which are historically contingent across time and transformative of political aspirations. He suggests that the brokenness of political reality is a permanent condition of humanity, which will continue to produce quests for the sacred, and transcendental political frames. Working in the spirit of the genealogical mode of enquiry, this book examines the secular sources of political theologies, the democratic sacred, the communist imagination, European political identity, the sources of human rights and the relationship of victimhood to new wars.

General

Imprint:	Cambridge UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2015
Authors:	Harald Wydra
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 17mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	276
ISBN-13:	978-1-107-07537-5
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political science & theory
LSN:	1-107-07537-8
Barcode:	9781107075375

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!