Disenchantment (the term used to describe the loss of magic in the world) is a bit more complicated and started earlier. Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age is

Disenchantment (the term used to describe the loss of magic in the world) is a bit more complicated and started earlier. Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age is an excellent read if you’re interested in how (and if) it happened: https://intotheclarities.com/2014/08/23/charles-taylor-on-disenchantment/ https://intotheclarities.com/2014/08/23/charles-taylor-on-di... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age It’s a huge tome but one detail worth mentioning is that Taylor says disenchantment goes back to at least the Reformation (1500s-1600s), as that’s when “strong belief” became more important. Prior to that, religion was essentially on various speeds, with the religious establishment “believing more” and the rest of society believing at a less serious level, content to live in a world of mixed beings, magic, etc. Once the Reformation kicked off, it became much more important to clarify and commit to the beliefs - which also had the unintended result of many people analyzing their beliefs and not believing them anymore. I can’t summarize the whole thing here, but I highly recommend it. I also think Taylor recently published a book about Romantic poetry, which is apt considering the blog post’s discussion of Coleridge.