Max Weber was wrong. The modern world is not disenchanted. On the contrary, it is full of gods and heroes and myths and magic. In this talk, Philip Gorski sketches out a new narrative of Western modernity that can account for this state of affairs: the fragmentation of the sacred.

Philip Gorski is Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Yale University. His research focuses on religion and politics in early modern and modern Europe and North America. His most recent book (with Samuel L. Perry) is The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Gorski is currently working on a new book, tentatively entitled “The Fragmentation of the Sacred: An Alternative Narrative of Western Modernity.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, Department of Sociology, and the Humanities & Social Change Center at UCSB.