Contemporary life feels significantly organized by a post-1960s schism, where much of the energy that fueled outward-oriented activism and mass politics (“repair the world”) was diverted inward, into the culture of self-help and the business of individual wellness (“repair yourself”).

It feels implausible to imagine we will return to religion in its current form en masse, so we are in this curious post-secular state where socially and politically we need the emphasis on solidarity, practice and experience previously found in religion to defend the integrity of the public realm, but culturally and intellectually we can’t go back ... See more