Philip Rieff’s social theory is at once a crucial tool in understanding the movements of contemporary culture, and a challenging body of work that has often been overlooked. The Social Philosophy of Philip Rieff embraces the lessons that this calm-headed but controversial figure in 20th-century sociology can teach those trying to parse the contemporary ‘culture wars’ analytically and without fanaticism.
Anyone with an interest in the religious, cultural and educational institutions of the West must grapple with how they have been, and will continue to be, transformed – this collection offers a wealth of routes into Rieff’s analysis of those transformations. Mending the perceived rift between Rieff’s early studies of Freud and his later commentaries on academia, culture and religion, each chapter looks at a particular facet of his work as it applies to a central topic in cultural theory. Alasdair MacIntyre described Rieff’s work as ‘a permanently valuable contribution to the human sciences’, and this book assesses that value to endeavours from self-knowledge and religious practice to cultural criticism and rational debate. This interdisciplinary perspective gives a full and cohesive sense of how Rieff’s responsible, deliberately unprophetic voice holds weight across the political spectrum.
Introduction: “Of Deathworks and Sacred Orders.”
1. The Role of Elites in Formation and Deformation, Ethan Alexander-Davey (Campbell University, USA)
2. Self-Knowledge After Rieff, Christopher Anadale (Mount St. Mary’s University, USA)
3. Christopher Lasch and Philip Rieff, Seth Bartee (Guildford Technical Community College, USA)
4. The Peculiar God of Philip Rieff, William G. Batchelder IV (Waynesburg University, USA)
5. Rieff and the Role of the Imagination, Joshua Bowman (Hope College, USA)
6. “You should be closest to him in heart when you resist him:” Rieff’s Use of Nietzsche in Deathworks, Michael P. Harding (Montgomery College, USA)
7. Title TBD, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn (Syracuse University, USA)
8. Philip Rieff as Political Scientist, Yiftach Ofek (University of Chicago, USA)
9. Rieff, the Prophet, and the African American Prophetic Voice, James Patterson (Ave Maria University, USA)
10. Philip Rieff’s Social Theory and the Rise of a New Sacred Order, Kevin Slack (Hillsdale College, USA)
11. Philip Rieff, Augusto Del Noce and Understanding the Sexual Revolution, Carl Trueman (Grove City College, USA)
12. The Despotism of the Soft: Philip Rieff, American Christianity, and the Genesis of Therapeutic Religion, Jacob Wolf (Princeton University, USA)
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