It is August 18, 1634. Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery that led to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun in France, confesses his sins on the porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, then perishes in flames lit by his own exorcists. A dramatic tale that has inspired many artistic retellings, including a novel by Aldous Huxley and an incendiary film by Ken Russell, the story of the possession at Loudun here receives a compelling analysis from the renowned Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau.
Interweaving substantial excerpts from primary historical...

This volume brings together, for the first time, a variety of texts from Certeau's book and journal publications which have proved important in the various disciplines where Certeau has had an influence.

From the late Michel de Certeau comes an essential engagement with multiculturalism and identity politics. De Certeau stresses that anyone attempting to understand contemporary societies in the West must grasp the already-existing diversity that outflanks elitist conceptions of the "national group". He argues compellingly that old ideas of social unity have no relevance in the diverse societies of today.

To remain unconsumed by consumer society--this was the goal, pursued through a world of subtle and practical means, that beckoned throughout the first volume of The Practice of Everyday Life. The second volume of the work delves even deeper than did the first into the subtle tactics of resistance and private practices that make living a subversive art. Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard, and Pierre Mayol develop a social history of "making do" based on microhistories that move from the private sphere (of dwelling, cooking, and homemaking) to the public (the experience of living in a neighborhood)....

In seiner fulminanten historischen Studie befreit Michel de Certeau die Mystiker der frühen Neuzeit von der Aura einer religiösen Nischenexistenz und rückt sie in die Mitte der geistig-politischen Auseinandersetzungen um die Moderne. Sie sind sensibel für die Krise der religiösen Institutionen, bemerken als erste, was sich verändert, wenn überkommene Sinnkontexte zerbrechen und die soziokulturellen Transmissionsriemen des Religiösen nicht mehr funktionieren. Mystik begründet nicht eine Geheimsprache, sondern kämpft mit den Mitteln der untergehenden Welt um deren mögliche Zukunft....