Pierre Leroux makes Humanity the object of a universal worship, similarly to Auguste Comte, but in a different way. Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon founds his New Christianity (1825) on the joint work of scientists, industrialists and artists, and this concept will find many supporters and religiously exalted followers who will develop, among other things, a project of total reconstruction of Paris, containing a huge temple in the shape of a Woman. The text focuses on a number of representatives of utopian socialism, positivism and lay humanitarianism, paying particular attention to how religious reflection present in their works takes the form of a universal religion, and how philosophical assumptions and principles of social organization are reflected in sacred space (based on the theme of the temple). The article aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between religion and utopian thought considering the example of nineteenth-century France.

Such potential outcomes of modernity need, the authors of this volume also assure us, to be balanced against the utopian promise which bodily remodelling entertains, and the possibility of longevity which scientific and technical advances encapsulate as the epitome of modern individualist utopianism. Within these treatments, the possibilities are explored that dystopia may emerge from or assume the form of racist regimes, environmental destruction, corporate dictatorship, or religious fundamentalism, or some combination of these factors. Ballard, David Foster Wallace and, most recently, Michel Houellebecq. Many of the leading authors of post-totalitarian dystopian fiction are included here, notably (to name but a few) Margaret Atwood, Robert Heinlein, J.G. The themes represented here mirror in literary form the dystopian drift in the external world discussed above. Literature is here nonetheless the chief focus, in keeping with the form of Thomas More’s original text and that of the tradition which has imitated and satirised it. Several authors revisit the emotional substrata of utopian aspiration rendered accessible through music in particular. There is some effort to reconsider practical efforts to found actual communities which embody utopian ideals. There is some consideration here of the lengthy and complex historical relationship between utopian ideals and religion. The twenty-six essays which compose this collection cover a substantial range of both historical and theoretical themes, indicating at the least that the utopian idea thrives today across a number of disciplines as well as in domains (like computer games) which are themselves of recent origin and which indicate that utopia can also be addressed as an aspect of the internal psychic fantasy world.

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