RLST 27615. Political Religions. 100 Units. Winter.
“Italian Fascism and German National Socialism were more than just political parties or regimes; rather, they had many of the characteristics of religious movements. Moreover, these “political” or “secular religions” were not unprecedented, but had deep cultural and intellectual roots in European modernity. In this course we will trace the history of the sacralization of politics from the French Revolution to World War II. We will look at primary sources in a variety of media—drawing examples from France (Rousseau, Maistre, and Sorel), Germany (Wagner, Nietzsche, Jünger, and Riefenstahl), and Italy (Pareto, D’Annunzio, G. Gentile, and Marinetti)—as well as some of the most important scholarly literature on this topic (Benjamin, Voegelin, and Aron). No prerequisites; all texts will be read in English translation.”













