Questions about how to negotiate belief and unbelief in social and public spheres are attracting an increasing amount of attention from scholars in a range of disciplines, and from concerned members of the public. This volume directly addresses the emergence of New Atheism and delves into the developing "Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) phenomenon.
Avoiding simplistic accounts of atheism, and of religious belief, an international panel of contributors provide readers with insights into a wide range of nuances within theism and a-theism, as well as spiritual practice and faith. Chapters cover, among other topics, Christian atheism, re-enchantment with nature, oral arguments against theism and atheist aesthetics.
This collection reaches beyond Christian belief and unbelief, which is so often the milieu of atheism debates, and incorporates a range of traditions as well as the emergence of SBNR. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of the Philosophy of Religion, as well as Religious Studies and Theology more generally.
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Introduction: Atheisms and the Power to be Confronted
Harriet A. Harris
1 A Quantum of Solace and a Heap of Doubt
Carl-Reinhold Bråkenhielm
2 Stepping Stone to Atheism?: The Instability of Agnosticism
Robin le Poidevin
3 A New Theist Meets Two Atheists
Jeanine Diller
4 Can an Atheist Display Religiously Significant Attitudes?
Max Baker-Hytch
5 Doxastic and Nondoxastic Atheisms
Christopher Jay
6 Atheists and Idolaters: The Case of John Wren-Lewis (19232006)
Stephen R. L. Clark
7 How to Not think about God
Michael McGhee
8 Atheist Aesthetics: A Critical Response
Daniel Gustaffson
9 Belief, Unbelief and Mystery
Karen Kilby
Appendix: Mapping Agnosticism: Comment Inspired by Robin Le Poidevins
'Stepping Stone to Atheism? The Instability of Agnosticism'
Jeanine Diller
Index
Harriet A. Harris is Head of the award-winning Multi-faith and Belief Chaplaincy, and Honorary Fellow of the School of Divinity, at the University of Edinburgh; formerly a member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford, and a Lecturer in Theology at the University of Exeter.
Victoria S. Harrison is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Macau, China. Until 2016, she was Reader in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where she was also Director of the Forum for Philosophy and Religion.
