The God Debaters

New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-030-96743-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 336 g

This book examines the post-9/11 God debate in the West. Through a close study of prominent English God debaters Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, Christopher Hitchens, and Terry Eagleton, Adrian Rosenfeldt demonstrates that New Atheist and religious apologist ideas and arguments about God, science, and identity are driven by mythic autobiographical narratives and Protestant or Catholic cultural heritage. This study is informed by criticism of the New Atheist polemic as being positivistic, and the religious apologists as propagating “sophisticated theology.” In both cases, the God debaters are perceived as disassociating themselves from human lived experience. It is through reconnecting the God debaters’ intellectual ideas to their cultural and social background that the God debate can be grounded in a recognisable human reality that eludes reductive distinctions and disembodied abstractions.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rosenfeldt, Adrian

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Richard Dawkins: Public Professor of Science.- 3. The Mythos of Karen Armstrong.- 4. Christopher Hitchens’ New Enlightenment.- 5. Terry Eagleton’s Revolution.- 6. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Adrian Rosenfeldt is a teaching associate at La Trobe University and Melbourne University, Australia. His research interests and teaching involve classical sociology, cultural sociology, sociology of mental illness, modernism, and criminology. His current research focuses on different forms of humanism and identity-making as recognisable in the twenty-first century God debate.