Modernism and Religion: Between Mysticism and Orthodoxy

Modernism and Religion explores how modernism influenced religious change in the 20th century, with a focus on immanence and immediacy in religious discourse. It highlights the emergence of Catholic theological modernism, human rights, Christian sociology, and philosophical personalism as strategic attempts by religious authorities to meet the challenge of new mysticism. Orthodoxy was also made new in ways that resisted the secular demand for religion to remain private.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 01 May 2025
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Modernism and Religion contends that modernism played a significant role in the religious transformations of the twentieth century. The increased emphasis on immanence and immediacy in religious discourse during this period is evident in the modernist epiphany. Modernism also became associated with mysticism, with the emergence of Catholic theological modernism, human rights, Christian sociology, and philosophical personalism representing a strategic response by various religious authorities to the challenge posed by new mysticism. Orthodoxy itself underwent a transformation, resisting the secular demand that religion remain a private affair. Modernism and Religion offers an alternative to epiphanic modernism through the mechanical form and conflicting registers of long poems by the aforementioned writers. Their fluctuating orthodoxy brings previously secularized aspects of religion back into its purview.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474457231