Politics of the Soul

<p>This book takes the form of intellectual histories of eight major representative figures of the twentieth century who inherited and responded to the spiritual problematic left by Nietzsche. With each figure offering very different ethical and spiritual positions all shed light on what we mean when we talk confusedly around the topics of politics and religion. With portraits of Max Weber Georg Lukács T.S. Eliot W.H. Auden Sigmund Freud Carl Jung George Orwell and Hannah Arendt the author explores the latent content of their worldview—the moral (or immoral) intention of their intellectual project. In each of the case studies the aim is to move toward an understanding of their ultimate values to get at their particular picture of the soul as well as the implications of this vision for religion and politics. As such <em>The Politics of the Soul</em> will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory religion philosophy political theory and cultural studies.</p>