Abstract:

This paper attempts to trace the origins of Max Weber's concept of "disenchantment"(Entzauberung) and its associated narrative through a combination of etymological analysis and and intellectual genealogy. It identifies two primary sources: German Romanticism represented by Schiller, and the 17th-century Dutch theologian Balthasar Bekker. In his work The Gods of Greece, Schiller introduced the concept of "de-deification" (Entgötterung), which was not merely a nostalgic or anti-Enlightenment gesture, but an attempt to improve humanity through the divine. German Romantics placed significant emphasis on "witchcraft" or "magic" (Zauber), proposing monism and aesthetics as pathways to overcome the shortcomings of a mechanistic worldview; Meanwhile Bekker's anti-witchcraft stance, drawing upon Cartesian dualism, argues for the ineffectiveness of witchcraft in defense of faith. Both approaches left their own unresolved issues: German Romanticism's aesthetic solution remained accessible only to a small intellectual elite, failing to address society as a whole, while its anthropomorphic theology proved unrealistic. Bekker's anti-witchcraft position, on the other hand, encountered two formidable challenges: the relationship between magic and religion, and the universal history of human religion. Weber's writings during World War I synthesised insights from both sources, addressing their respective unresolved problems to complete a "closure" of critical inquiry. On one hand, he recognized the void of meaning in modern civilization, advocating for "vocation"(Beruf) to combat the existential weariness; on the other, he proposed a historical schema of religious development, where the "disenchantment of religion" spilling over into the "disenchantment of the world", which in turn created room for discussions of "re-enchantment" against the backdrop of the "clash of the gods".

Key words: disenchantment, Re-enchantment, Max Weber, German Romanticism, Balthasar Bekker