How and why do enchanted utopias emerge in contemporary globalized societies? What notions of morality, religion, and time underlie such projects? In this curated collection on enchanted utopias, editor Grace Carey collects together articles from the AE archives pairing them with an introductory essay asking how we might take religious thought and action seriously. As she suggests, the conceptual lacunae underlying secular-religious divides provide both links for this set of articles as well as gaps into which we might fall.

Introduction

Enchanted Utopias: Contemporary Moral and Religious Utopian Movements

by Grace A. Carey

Provocation

“The Unheimlich Man-oeuvre”
by Adam Lutzker and Judy Rosenthal

Religion and Contemporary Utopia

“Disjuncture, Continental Philosophy’s New ‘Political Paul,’ and the Question of Progressive Christianity in a Southern California Third Wave Church”
by Jon Bialecki

“Utopian Virtues: Muslim Neighbors, Ritual Sociality, and the Politics of Convivència”
by Brad Erickson

“Policing Ambiguity: Muslim Saints-Day Festivals and the Moral Geography of Public Space in Egypt”
by Samuli Schielke

Moral Utopias, Secular Landscapes

“Freeze, Die, Come to Life: The Many Paths to Immortality in Post-Soviet Russia”
by Anya Bernstein

“Reclaiming Modernity: Indigenous Cosmopolitanism and the Coming of the Second Revolution in Bolivia”
by Mark Goodale

“Commentary: Democracy, Temporalities of Capitalism, and Dilemmas of Inclusion in Occupy Movements”
by David Nugent

“A Civilized Revolution: Aesthetics and Political Action in Egypt”
by Jessica Winegar

Slipping through the Cracks: Lacunae in “Modern” Utopias

“Tearful Sojourns and Tribal Wives: Primitivism, Kinship, Suffering, and Salvation on Japanese and British Reality Television”
by Cristopher Ball and Shunsuke Nozawa

“Data Centers as Infrastructural In-betweens: Expanding Connections and Enduing Marginalities in Iceland”
by Alix Johnson

“Performing Dignity: Human Rights, Citizenship, and the Techno-politics of Law in South Africa”
by Antina Von Schnitzler