Skip to main content
Log in

Secularity and Modernity? A Brief Response to Herbert De Vriese

  • Published:
Sophia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this brief response to Herbert De Vriese’s The Charm of Disenchantment, his attempt to link secularism and modernity is questioned. Criticism is leveled at De Vriese’s use of the correspondence between Voltaire and Frederick the Great without reference to the historical context, notably the confessional states that existed between roughly 1650 and 1800 in Europe. De Vriese’s apology for disenchantment and modernity is also questioned in the light of both modern religious and secular responses to modernity as exemplified by the Dalai Lama and Bernard Stiegler.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achterhuis, H. (1988). Het rijk van de schaarste. Van Thomas Hobbes tot Michel Foucault. Utrecht: Ambo/Baarn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, Z. (1991). Modernity and ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstadt, S.N. (2003). Comparative civilizations & multiple modernities (v.1 and 2). Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Illich, I. (2005). The rivers north of the future. The testament of Ivan Illich as told to David Cayley. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Löwith, K. (1949). Meaning in history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milbank, J. (2006). Theology and social theory: Beyond secular reason. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiegler, B. (2005). De la misère symbolique. 2. La catastrophè du sensible. Paris: Galilée.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiegler, B. (2006). Réenchanter le monde: La valeur esprit contre le populisme industriel. Paris: Flammarion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johann Rossouw.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rossouw, J. Secularity and Modernity? A Brief Response to Herbert De Vriese. SOPHIA 49, 429–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0198-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0198-0

Keywords

Navigation