The Origins of Individualism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6252396 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Lee (0000-0003-0789-058X), Daniel S Lee (0000-0001-9671-5817, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 351-361 |
| Publication date | 2017-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0891-3811 • E-ISSN: 1933-8007 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08913811.2017.1380121 |
| OpenAlex | W2768902389 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
In Inventing the Individual, Larry Siedentop traces the origins of Western liberal individualism to Christianity, which broke the hold of classical religiosity. In the classical view, according to Siedentop, there was no conceptual space for individuals, as society was seen as consisting of families, each worshipping its own god. Paul’s doctrine that everyone is equally a child of God enabled an individual-focused understanding of society to emerge. This began to happen with the rise of the Roman Empire and then the Church, which (at least conceptually) placed all the equal individuals under a single sovereign. This story is magnificent in its simplicity, but questionable because of the same quality
Christianity · Doctrine · Empire · Epistemology · Individualism · Political science · Politics · Religiosity · Simplicity · Sociology · Sovereignty · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Religious Studies
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |