Description: "A sharp critique of our contemporary societies in which pseudo-communication and narcissism have replaced community"--
Review Quotes:
"Byung-Chul Han's new book challenges the reader to go far beyond the worn-out critique of neoliberalism. On the one side, there is the progressive replacement of substance through communication, painted as a road to existential perdition; it contrasts, on the other side, with the utopian view of a return towards the security of rituals in their form and appearance. This reversal of long-established thought is expressed in a compressed and energetic language that reads like a manifesto."
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University
"The kind of book ... that leads one to rethink our standard narratives of history and to see our society and era in a fresh light."
Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed
"an essential philosopher for anyone wanting to diagnose what plagues the modern person"
The Gospel Coalition
"This book is a powerful reminder of the purpose and potential of ritual actions, and what role the arts can serve in our alienated and desacralized times."
Yuval Sharon, The New Yorker
"In a culture obsessed with progress, disruption, and innovation, Han's conservative defense of ritual feels both radical and necessary. For anyone concerned with the spiritual and social dimensions of modern life, Byung-Chul Han's The Disappearance of Rituals is worth reading."
Jeremy Bassetti
"Han is a joy to read. His writing isn't quite aphoristic, but it has an Hemingway-esque sinewy strength to it. His pronouncements hit you at a gut level."
Law & Liberty
"Han's criticism is welcome, pertinent, and current"
The European Conservative
"makes useful and necessary philosophical distinctions that allow the reader to further contemplate man's place in a chaotic world and possibly change not only the way we perceive the world but also to encourage creation rather than destruction."
American Essence