"The quest to bring political life under God's authority has been revived, confounding expectations of a secular future. In this book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-old quest - and its role in shaping Western thought." "As Lilla shows, the urge to reconnect politics to religion remained strong and took novel forms in modern European thought. By the Second World War a forceful political messianism had arisen, justifying the most deadly ideologies of the age." "Making us question what we thought we knew about religion, politics, and the fate of civilizations, Lilla reminds us of the modern West's unique trajectory and what is required to remain on it."--Jacket.