Ernst Troeltsch’s Concept of Europe
Austin Harrington
Recent writing in social theory has seen a renewed preoccupation with questions of religion, secularization and civilizational difference. This article reappraises the work one early twentieth-century thinker relation to these issues: German historical theologian close colleague Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923). The concentrates particularly on Troeltsch’s late writings Europe ‘Europeanism’. thesis is defended that offers an important gloss Weber’s famous assertion ‘universal significance validity’ occidental rationalism. thicker, more concretized reading statement serves as precursor contemporary thinking about ‘multiple modernities’ also fund trenchant counter-responses claims recent post-colonial critics Eurocentrism western science. give us example among many current cosmopolitan reflexivity European thought between wars avoided both nationalism chauvinism, hand, nihilism obscurantism, other.
European Journal of Social Theory