„Odkouzlení“ versus sekularizace?!
„Elimination of Magic“ (Entzauberung) versus Secularisation

Summary/Abstract: ′Elimination of Magic' (Entzauberung) versus Secularisation. In the context of the constitutive antinomy of German intellectual life at the end of 19th century and the bifurcation of subject and object, this essay attempts to reconstruct the original intentions of Weber’s concept of Entzauberung (elimination of magical powers) of life and the world. It shows the weaknesses of a one-dimensional identification of the term Entzauberung with secularisation. It argues that it was not Weber’s aim to capture the cultural and social processes of the de-religionalization of both the public and private sphere, or the process of the expulsion of belief from everyday life. On the contrary, he strove to critically interpret the social and cultural consequences of the development of science and an increasing rationalization of life. There were two consequences, according to Weber. First, religiosity and belief changed in relation to the privatization and subjectification of traditional values (such as good, beauty, hope, etc.) which brought an increased danger in that these values can be externally manipulated. Second, various forms of “religious” ideologies were produced and resurrected. From this perspective, Entzauberung is a phenomenon parallel to secularisation, and not one of its forms. Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 5: 564-578)

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