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The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics

Online ISBN:
9780226822686
Print ISBN:
9780226822679
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics

David Newheiser (ed.)
David Newheiser
(ed.)
Australian Catholic University
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Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
9 December 2022
Online ISBN:
9780226822686
Print ISBN:
9780226822679
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

This collection demonstrates that atheism is more varied—and therefore more interesting—than many realize. As religious identification has declined over the last fifty years, an energetic debate has developed between atheism’s advocates and its opponents. Unfortunately, both sides in the debate over atheism tend to rely upon a stereotyped understanding of religious traditions, which yields a conception of atheism that is similarly simplistic. Where atheism is usually defined narrowly as the belief that there is no god, these essays show that atheism is better understood as a holistic phenomenon that encompasses every dimension of human life: imagination, emotion, community, and more. The contributors draw on key figures from early modern philosophy, medieval poetry, and contemporary theory in order to show that atheism has its source not only in intellectual debates but in ethics, politics, aesthetics, etc. By clarifying the complex relation of sympathy and resistance that connects particular forms of atheism with particular religious traditions, The Varieties of Atheism offers a vivid account of why atheism matters, and it opens new possibilities for conversation between those who are religious and those who are not.

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