In the Sixties it was widely assumed that politics were becoming divided from religion and that as societies became more industrialised religious belief and practice would be restricted to private thoughts and actions. The processes of modern industrialism, which Max Weber had seen as being characterised by depersonalised relationships and increasing bureaucratisation, were leading, if not to the final 'death of God', at least to the 'disenchantment of the world'. The numinous forces that had underpinned the medieval cosmos would be psychologised, subjectivised and demythologised.

LRB 18 August 1994 | PDF Download