Book review: Religion and atheism: beyond the divide

Gates, Brian (2017) Book review: Religion and atheism: beyond the divide. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 38 (2). pp. 226-227.

Preview

PDF - Accepted Version Available under License CC BY-NC Download (156kB) | Preview

Abstract

This is a very significant publication. If it’s dangerous falsely to concretise religion and religions, it’s no less so non-religious and atheism. Similarly, it’s arbitrary to exclude any engagement with atheisms from inter-religious dialogue or to characterise humanism as necessarily anti-religious. By contrast this book brings Religion and Atheism together into the same room in a common universe which is their shared home. They may be mutually challenging, but categorically, in their respective preoccupations with questions of human meaning, they show a degree of shared intimacy which is remarkable. The book is edited by Anthony Carroll of Heythrop, in Jesuit guise, and Richard Norman from Kent, kitted as a Humanist philosopher. In its background shaping it also owes much to Brian Pearce, renowned as the enabler of the Inter Faith Network, and here in the Foreword identifying questions at the heart of both the book and ongoing challenge. The two editors are joined by 19 others in producing individual chapters. Their perspectives are diverse ranging across literature and poetry, continental European philosophy past and present, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, medical and political sciences, Humanisms and secularity.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Journal of Beliefs and Values
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	1469-9362
Departments:	Academic Departments > Institute of Arts (IOA) > Humanities
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	30 Mar 2017 14:55
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 17:02
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2803

Downloads