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Against the backdrop of mounting ecological destruction, literature beyond the scope of religious studies has taken on sensibilities and metaphysical concerns traditionally associated with religious writing and critique. Some authors view religious ideas as being at the root of dangerous environmental attitudes, while others turn to theological idioms as potential avenues of redress. Although modernist and Western environmental attitudes have often been glossed as “disenchanted” by writers on both sides of this debate, this article suggests that the term obscures a much more fraught set of processes that crosscut discursive and material boundaries. It contends that to study climate and religion in the same frame today should be to consider how religious ideas were inscribed into landscapes, and in turn how these remade ecologies came to influence religious ideas and practices.  

While traditional interpretations of War and Peace have snubbed its philosophical elements, and only a handful of scholars have taken seriously Tolstoy’s philosophical ideas, this paper claims that a sophisticated critique of the Enlightenment is the leitmotiv of his book. By means of a close reading of Tolstoy’s descriptions of some of the most controversial effects associated to the Enlightenment (i.e., the disenchantment of the world, concept fetishism, the decline of the individual, bureaucratization, the erosion of traditional solidarity, and the reduction of reason to its instrumental dimension), and by comparing Tolstoy’s ideas with some of the most accomplished analysis of the Enlightenment and its effects, this paper offers a novel reading of War and Peace: Tolstoy’s book should not be read exclusively as a chauvinist and aristocratic depiction of the nineteenth-century Russian society. Above all, War and Peace is an insightful assessment of one of the most momentous transformations of human societies. Mientras que las interpretaciones tradicionales de Guerra y paz han despreciado sus elementos filosóficos, y solo un puñado de estudiosos se han tomado en serio las ideas filosóficas de Tolstói, este artículo afirma que una sofisticada crítica de la Ilustración es el leitmotiv de este libro. Mediante una lectura detallada de las descripciones presentadas por Tolstói sobre algunos de los efectos más controvertidos asociados a la Ilustración (i.e., el desencantamiento del mundo, el fetichismo de los conceptos, el ocaso del individuo, la burocratización, la erosión de la solidaridad tradicional y la reducción de la razón a su dimensión instrumental), y comparando las ideas del escritor ruso con algunos de los análisis más acabados de la Ilustración y sus efectos, este artículo ofrece una lectura novedosa de Guerra y paz: el libro de Tolstói no debe leerse exclusivamente como una descripción chovinista y aristocrática de la sociedad rusa del siglo XIX. Por encima de todo, Guerra y paz es un diagnóstico perspicaz de una de las transformaciones más trascendentales experimentadas por las sociedades humanas. Embora as interpretações tradicionais de Guerra e Paz tenham desprezado seus elementos filosóficos, e embora apenas alguns estudiosos tenham levado a sério as ideias filosóficas de Tolstói, este artigo afirma que uma crítica sofisticada do Iluminismo é o leitmotiv de seu livro. Por meio de uma leitura atenta das descrições de Tolstói de alguns dos efeitos mais controversos associados ao Iluminismo (i.e., o desencantamento do mundo, o fetichismo do conceito, o declínio do indivíduo, a burocratização, a erosão da solidariedade tradicional e a redução da razão à sua dimensão instrumental) e comparando as ideias de Tolstói com algumas das análises mais bem-sucedidas do Iluminismo e seus efeitos, este artigo oferece uma nova leitura de Guerra e Paz: o livro de Tolstói não deve ser lido exclusivamente como um retrato chauvinista e aristocrático da sociedade russa do século XIX. Acima de tudo, Guerra e Paz é uma avaliação perspicaz de uma das mais importantes transformações das sociedades humanas.

The aim of this paper is to analyze which concept describes the central theme in Max Weber’s works — the rationalization processes — best: disenchantment, alienation, or anomie. I first describe how Weber’s rationalization processes were understood in the past. Most scholars have interpreted these processes as disenchantment, although some have seen a stronger affinity to the Marxist concept of alienation. Since the majority have regarded disenchantment as the central theme of Weber’s legacy, I discuss Weber’s rare statements about the disenchantment process, most of which appear in a speech that was published later as Science as a Vocation. I then introduce definitions of key concepts (Hegelian alienation, Marxist alienation, Durkheimian anomie, and de-magification) to provide a more varied and precise vocabulary. This will aid in describing at least two different rationalization processes that can be derived from Weber’s theoretical framework (Economy and Society) and his historical studies. The first, in the economic and political sphere, can be characterized as Marxist alienation, whereas the second, in the religious sphere, can be interpreted as de-magification and Hegelian alienation. It is possible to regard Weber’s statement in Science as a Vocation as a third rationalization process, in the sphere of knowledge production, which would suggest the concepts of de-magification and anomie. However, such a reading would seem to contradict the greater body of Weber’s methodological writings. Finally, it is concluded that the term disenchantment is not a very useful concept for portraying Weber’s intended view.

Enchantment is a term frequently used by human geographers to express delight, wonder or that which cannot be simply explained. However, it is a concept that has yet to be subject to sustained critique, specifically how it can be used to progress geographic thought and praxis. This paper makes sense of, and space for, the unintelligibility of enchantment in order to encourage a less repressed, more cheerful way of engaging with the geographies of the world. We track back through our disciplinary heritage to explore how geographers have employed enchantment as a force through which the world inspires affective attachment. We review the terrain of the debate surrounding recent geographical engagements with enchantment, focusing on the nature of being critical and the character of critique in human geography, offering a new ‘enchanted’ stance to our geographical endeavours. We argue that the moment of enchantment has not passed with the current challenging climate; if anything, it is more pressing.

Albert the Great (1200-1280) was a prominent Dominican friar, a leading philosopher, and the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. He also endorsed the use of magic. Controversial though that stance would have been, Albert was never punished or repudiated for what he wrote. Albert's reception followed instead a markedly different course, leading ultimately to his canonization by the Catholic Church in 1931. But his thoughts about magic have been debated for centuries. Disenchanting Albert the Great takes Albert's contested reputation as a case study for the long and complex history surrounding the concept of magic and magic's relationship to science and religion. Over the centuries, Albert was celebrated for his magic, or it was explained away-but he was never condemned. In the fifteenth century, members of learned circles first attempted to distance Albert from magic, with the goal of exonerating him of superstition, irrationality, and immorality. Disenchanting Albert the Great discusses the philosopher's own understanding of magic; an early, adulatory phase of his reputation as a magician; and the three primary strategies used to exonerate Albert over the centuries. In the end, Disenchanting Albert the Great tells the story of a thirteenth-century scholar who worked to disenchant the natural world with his ideas about magic but who himself would not be disenchanted until the modern era. This accessible and insightful history will appeal to those interested in Albert the Great, Catholic Church history, the history of magic, and Western understandings of the natural and the rational over time.

This article examines the challenges faced by Central American writers during a period of profound cultural, political, and economic change, as Central America transitioned from an era of civil war and revolutionary struggle to one of peace, democracy, and neoliberal state-building, spanning from the 1990s to the 2010s. At the core of this change was a pervasive sense of disenchantment, understood not merely as disillusionment with the failures of the peacebuilding process but as a hollowing out of society’s capacity to envision Central American reality on a broader and more meaningful scale. This deeper, more intractable aspect of disenchantment and its implications for the literary enterprise are the focus of this article. I argue that the forces shaping Central America’s postwar modernity have profoundly undermined the groundwork of affectivity, imagination, and memory that literature’s humanizing potential depends on. As a result, Central American writers face the paradoxical task of upholding their literary vocation when literature’s power to produce aesthetic and emancipatory experiences is in decline.

This paper examines postsecularism, magic and disenchantment in the West with an emphasis on Wicca. Following a discussion of postsecularism, it provides a critical overview of the Weberian notion of disenchantment which describes the decline in magic in modernity. Magic, far from disappearing in the postsecular, has been transformed through a process of psychologization. While there is substantial evidence for the persistence of magic in modernity, the question is how it persists. The notion of participatory consciousness is deployed to account for its persistence. Participatory consciousness allows us to understand the ways that everyday life blends secular, spiritual, and religious aspects—a central theme of the postsecular condition. This paper deploys secondary ethnographic data pertaining to phenomenological studies of Wiccan rituals. Wiccans demonstrate an interest in spirituality that aligns with nature. There is a complex relationship between secular and religious ideas with a blending of spiritual practices with modern technology and individualized spiritual paths. Through the performance of rituals, practitioners transition from an ‘ordinary’ to a ‘magical’ worldview—a form of participatory consciousness involving analogical thinking, imagination, meaning and affect associated with an holistic and enchanted worldview where there are meaningful connections between people, events, and objects.

This collectively written article explores postdigital relationships between science, philosophy, and religion within the continuum of enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment. Contributions are broadly classified within four sections related to academic fields of philosophy, theology, critical theory, and postdigital studies. The article reveals complex and nuanced relationships between various disciplinary perspectives, religions, and political positions, and points towards lot of commonalities between their views to the enchantment, disenchantment, re-enchantment continuum. Some commonly discussed questions include: Where do the mythical, mystical and spiritual end and the rational, objective and empirical begin? How do we find our bearings in the midst of this complexity and where do we search for resources that are trustworthy and reliable? While the article inevitably offers more questions than answers, a common thread between all contributions is the need for an open postdigital dialogue conducted in the spirit of mutual understanding and respect. It is with this conclusion that the article offers a possible route for further development of such dialogue in the future.

The objective of this study was to examine the incremental validity of measures of Organisational Disenchantment and Enchantment over demographic, personality, burnout and workaholism factors in explaining Counterproductive Work Behaviours (CWB). Four hundred adults participated in an online survey to assess their Big Five personality traits, job burnout, disenchantment, enchantment, workaholism (considering both facet and domain levels), and self-reported CWBs. Our analysis revealed that participant sex, along with the personality traits of Agreeableness and Neuroticism, were significantly associated with job disenchantment and enchantment. Further, a regression analysis with CWB as the criterion variable indicated that sex, age, job disenchantment, and low levels of Conscientiousness accounted for approximately 27 % of the variance in these behaviours. Implications are considered.

In pre-Song Chinese thought, the afterlife, or the subterranean realm was a sacred space distinctly separate from the world of the living, an extension of the political–religious–cultural order of the Chinese empire. Even after the introduction of Buddhism to China, although the Buddhist concept of hell applied karmic retribution to the present life in an attempt to provide ethical norms for real life, the sacredness of the afterlife remained intact. Song Dynasty Chinese thought underwent a profound “modernization” transformation. Su Shi, with the concept of qing 情 [disposition] at its core, disenchanted the sacred afterlife, shaping a new, self-conscious individuality in the interplay between the living and the dead, the finite and the infinite, the mortal and the immortal. This new individuality, with its spiritual spontaneity and freedom, integrated the afterlife with the present world, internalizing infinity and immortality into a utopian spiritual homeland. This free individuality, entirely different from Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, marking a hidden potential in the development of Chinese intellectual history that has yet to be fully revealed.