The Re-enchantment of the World is a philosophical exploration of the role of art and religion as sources of meaning in an increasingly material world dominated by science. Gordon Graham takes as his starting point Max Weber's idea that contemporary Western culture is marked by a 'disenchantment of the world' -- the loss of spiritual value in the wake of religion's decline and the triumph of the physical and biological sciences. Relating themes in Hegel, Nietzsche, Schleiermacher, Schopenhauer, and Gadamer to topics in contemporary philosophy of the arts, Graham explores the idea that art, now freed from its previous service to religion, has the potential to re-enchant the world. In so doing, he develops an argument that draws on the strengths of both 'analytical' and 'continental' traditions of philosophical reflection.

Gordon Graham is Henry Luce III Professor of Philosophy and the Arts, Princeton Theological Seminary.

• Preface and acknowledgements


• I: Spheres of Meaning


• II: Secularization, secularism and disenchantment


• III: Seeing the sacred


• IV: Telling a different story


• V: Singing a new song


• VI: Replacing sacred space


• VII: The art of festival and the dance of life


• Conclusion


• Bibliography


• Index