A Secular Age

Chapter 2 explores the rise of the “disciplinary society” and its role in developing secularism from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. It challenges the simplistic view that growing interest in nature led to a decline in religious belief, arguing instead that early interest in nature coexisted with religious devotion. Intellectual currents like nominalism and Renaissance humanism contributed to the “autonomization” of nature, shifting it from a reflection of divine order to a self-contained system governed by natural laws. This laid the groundwork for the later mechanistic view of the universe and a more secular understanding of nature, driven partly by theological motivations to preserve God’s sovereignty.

The rise of the disciplinary society, marked by an emphasis on civility, self-discipline, and societal transformation, was influenced by religious reform and the needs of emerging states. The Puritan ethic focused on how hard work and moral duty played a crucial role in this transformation. The chapter also highlights the influence of neo-Stoicism, particularly through Justus Lipsius, which promoted an ethic of self-discipline and rational engagement in public life, further shaping a disciplined and morally rigorous society.

This era saw a departure from the medieval worldview, particularly Augustine’s view of inherent limits to eradicating sin and disorder. Calvinists and neo-Stoics shared an unprecedented ambition to establish a well-ordered society rooted in confidence in human malleability and the power of will. A new understanding of natural order emerged in the 17th century, especially through the development of Natural Law by thinkers like Grotius and Locke, which reinforced the belief in human agency’s power to reshape society.

The new worldview also transformed human self-perception, particularly through Descartes and the neo-Stoic emphasis on rational control over passions. This shift contributed to the “buffered self,” a modern identity increasingly disengaged from the enchanted world of spirits and forces. These developments connect to the broader trend toward secularization, where the disentangling of immanence from transcendence, initially driven by religious motivations, ultimately paved the way for the secular age and the emergence of exclusive humanism.

Chapter 3 describes the “Great Disembedding,” a shift where individuals became increasingly detached from the embedded social, cosmic, and religious frameworks that characterized earlier societies. In early societies, religious life was intertwined with social and cosmic orders. Individuals could not conceive of themselves outside their social and religious contexts, and collective rituals were essential for maintaining societal and cosmic harmony. This embeddedness meant that people identified themselves primarily through their roles within their social group, and their religious practices were community-based and closely linked to the natural and supernatural world.

The “Axial Age,” roughly between 800 and 200 BCE, significantly changed religious thought across various civilizations. This led to the development of the “post-Axial” religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These religions introduced a break from the earlier embeddedness by promoting a more individualized and transcendent relationship with the divine. They encouraged questioning the established social and cosmic orders and introduced new concepts of the human good.

Despite these changes, the full disembedding effect of Axial religions was initially limited. Early post-Axial religions coexisted with the older forms of social and cosmic embeddedness. However, a more radical disembedding occurred as Western society progressed, particularly through the influence of Christianity and Stoicism. This transformation led to the modern conception of society as constituted by individuals, each with a personal relationship to God and a moral order emphasizing individual responsibility and rationality.

The rise of the “buffered self”—a self that is detached from the enchanted world of spirits and forces—played a crucial role in this process. This new self-conception and the drive for societal reform contributed to the disembedding from traditional social and cosmic frameworks. The emergence of a disciplined society, where norms and categorial relations took precedence over communal bonds, further reinforced this shift.

The final section of Chapter 3 examines the ambivalence of this transformation. While Christian ideals powered it, the process also led to a “corruption” of these ideals, as the attempt to impose the Kingdom of God through disciplined societal reform eventually contributed to the secularization of society. The Great Disembedding, he claims, set the stage for the modern secular age, characterized by a focus on individualism and a disenchanted view of the world.

Chapter 4 examines the evolution of a new moral order in Western society, particularly shaped by 17th-century Natural Law theories from thinkers like Grotius and Locke. This new order centers on the idea that society is composed of individuals who come together to form political entities for mutual benefit, especially for security and prosperity. Key principles of this order include natural rights and individual obligations, with the legitimacy of political authority rooted in the governeds’ consent. Over time, this vision expanded, pushing aside older hierarchical social orders and becoming the dominant framework that shapes how society is understood and organized.

The “social imaginary” refers to the collective way people imagine their social existence theoretically and through shared practices, norms, and expectations. Initially, the theories of this new moral order influenced only a small group of elites, but they eventually permeated the broader social imaginary, transforming society’s understanding and organization. This transformation is evident in the shift from a hierarchical society to one where individuals see the economy, public sphere, and democratic self-rule as distinct and crucial aspects of modern life. From this perspective, the economy, in particular, becomes an independent realm defined by mutual benefit and economic exchange principles. This new order is instrumental, with social structures existing to serve individuals rather than upholding any inherent hierarchy.

Nature plays an important role in the public sphere in modern society as a space for rational discourse where society can collectively reach a common understanding of important matters. Unlike earlier societies that intertwined debate and decision-making with power, the modern public sphere exists outside the realm of power. It operates independently of political structures, providing a normative guide for government while grounded in common action without any transcendent foundation. The extra-political and secular nature of the public sphere is a crucial aspect of modernity.

In modern secular society, institutions like the public sphere exist solely within profane time, without reference to higher, eternal times. This secularity represents a significant break from earlier conceptions of society, where social and political orders were a part of a divinely ordained structure.

Finally, Chapter 4 discusses the concept of the “sovereign people,” exploring how the idea of popular sovereignty has reshaped social imaginaries. It distinguishes between two paths by which new theories of social order have influenced society: one through the creation of new practices and the other through the reinterpretation of existing ones. The American Revolution is a key example, where a backward-looking idea of legitimacy evolved into a foundation of popular sovereignty, leading to a new social imaginary where a constitution could be created through collective action in secular time. This transformation fundamentally altered how societies conceive of themselves and their political structures.

Chapter 5 addresses concerns that his focus on underlying ideas of order might be seen as “idealism,” where ideas are given independent causal force in history. He counters this by rejecting the false dichotomy between “ideas” and “material factors,” arguing that human practices are inherently intertwined with all self-conceptions and modes of understanding. These practices are both material and ideal, and attempting to separate them for causal analysis misses the complexity of historical developments.

Historical materialism, particularly in its Marxist form, posits that economic motives are primary, with ideas and legal forms facilitating these economic practices. However, this materialist thesis, while coherent, is not universally applicable. The motivations driving historical change can vary widely, and there isn’t always a clear hierarchy where economic factors dominate over others.

The chapter then explores how the modern idea of moral order gained its strength and shaped the social imaginaries of modernity. This development is linked to the transformation of the European nobility from semi-independent warriors to courtiers and civil servants under the growing power of centralized states. This shift brought about new ideals of sociability, civility, and courtesy, emphasizing self-presentation, persuasion, and cultivating relationships in more complex, hierarchical, yet quasi-equal social settings. These changes coincided with the rise of humanist education and the development of new social spaces like courts and cities.

The broader context of this transformation includes the push for religious reform and the ambitions of states to enhance military and economic power. These intertwined motivations helped drive the changes that eventually aligned with the modern ideal of order, which emphasizes mutual benefit and the instrumental nature of social structures.

As civility expanded beyond the nobility to broader sections of society, it fostered a new understanding of social order. This shift toward a more inclusive and less hierarchical society laid the groundwork for the modern social imaginary, where individuals imagine society as a network of individuals engaged in mutual exchange rather than a fixed hierarchical order.

The chapter discusses the 18th century as a pivotal period in Western modernity. During this time, polite society developed a new self-consciousness that recognized the importance of economic underpinnings and saw itself as part of a historical progression. This period also witnessed the emergence of stadial theories of history, which categorized human development into stages culminating in commercial society. This new historical consciousness marked a significant departure from earlier, more static views of social order, emphasizing the uniqueness of modernity as an epoch without precedent.