Captive Gods
Religion and the Rise of Social Science
Published on 7. October 2025
Book
Hardback
344 pages
978-0-300-23306-3 (ISBN)
Description
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how early social scientists developed our modern understandings of society through their theories of religion
The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers-notably Edward Burnett Tylor, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber-grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.
Appiah also examines more recent work in both interpretive sociology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology about the mechanisms through which communities form beliefs and values-while underscoring the enduring significance of these earlier debates for contemporary social thought. Throughout, he intertwines storytelling, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection to show how our ideas about society and culture have been, and continue to be, forged in dialogue with religious questions.
The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers-notably Edward Burnett Tylor, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber-grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.
Appiah also examines more recent work in both interpretive sociology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology about the mechanisms through which communities form beliefs and values-while underscoring the enduring significance of these earlier debates for contemporary social thought. Throughout, he intertwines storytelling, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection to show how our ideas about society and culture have been, and continue to be, forged in dialogue with religious questions.
Reviews / Votes
"Appiah asks us to think more carefully about what we mean when we call something a religion. . . . Among the writers who might serve as a guide through this difficult terrain, Appiah stands out for both his lucidity in exposition and his sure-footed style."-Peter E. Gordon, New York Review of Books"Thoughtful and entertaining."-Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal
"In this stimulating intellectual history, Appiah . . . examines the central importance of the study of religion to the thinkers who established the modern social sciences. . . . A rich and enchanting work of scholarship."-Publishers Weekly
"An accessible, readable book that exhibits deep erudition and extensive learnedness worn lightly. Appiah has an eye for raising the biggest questions about human nature and social existence."-Angie Heo, University of Chicago
"In this elegant, witty, and often brilliant book, Anthony Appiah explores the fundamental significance of religion for modern development of the very idea of societies. The notion that there might be many religions to be explored comparatively shaped thinking of societies in similar plurality, exploring how religions gave them distinctive categories of thought and culture, how individuals were shaped by and dependent on these contexts, and what happened when they lost their grip.This is a rich and valuable work for all who would understand religion, social science, and modernity itself."-Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University and Princeton University
"In this characteristically brilliant and learned book, Anthony Appiah has given us a crucial account of the emergence of disciplines in which we seek to uncover how we form and reform our beliefs and values. It is a stunning and urgent inquiry-a masterpiece of intellectual history-and it could not arrive at a better time."-Jorie Graham, author of To 2040 and [To] The Last [Be] Human
"In Captive Gods, Appiah builds an incisive intellectual history of theories of religion and society through the minds and worlds of four giants. We see how the concepts of 'religion' and 'society' co-created each other in the early twentieth century. This is an exquisite work of reflection as we rethink those captive gods, thundering in our own time."-Laurie L. Patton, president, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and author, Who Owns Religion? Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-23306-3 (9780300233063)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kwame Anthony Appiah is the Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. His books include The Ethics of Identity, Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity, The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity, and As If: Idealization and Ideals. He writes the weekly "Ethicist" column for the New York Times Magazine.