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Title:
The Oxford handbook of atheism / edited by Stephen Bullivant and Michael Ruse.
Author:
Bullivant, Stephen Sebastian, 1984- editor.

Ruse, Michael, editor.
Publication Information:
Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2015.
Call Number:
BL2747.3 .O94 2015
Abstract:
Recent books by, among others, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have thrust atheism firmly into the popular, media, and academic spotlight. This so-called New Atheism is arguably the most striking development in western socio-religious culture of the past decade or more. As such, it has spurred fertile (and often heated) discussions both within, and between, a diverse range of disciplines. Yet atheism, and the New Atheism, are by no means co-extensive. Interesting though it indeed is, the New Atheism is a single, historically and culturally specific manifestation of positive atheism (the that there is/are no God/s), which is itself but one form of a far deeper, broader, and more significant global phenomenon. The Oxford Handbook of Atheism is a pioneering edited volume, exploring atheism - understood in the broad sense of "an absence of belief in the existence of a God or gods" - in all the richness and diversity of its historical and contemporary expressions. Bringing together an international team of established and emerging scholars, it probes the varied manifestations and implications of unbelief from an array of disciplinary perspectives (philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, demography, psychology, natural sciences, gender and sexuality studies, literary criticism, film studies, musicology) and in a range of global contexts (Western Europe, North America, post-communist Europe, the Islamic world, Japan, India). Both surveying and synthesizing previous work, and presenting the major fruits of innovative recent research, the handbook is set to be a landmark text for the study of atheism.
ISBN:
9780198745075
Series:
Oxford Handbook

Oxford handbooks.
Physical Description:
xvi, 763 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
General Note:
First published in hardback in 2013.
Contents:
Definitions and debates -- Defining 'atheism' / The case against atheism / Critiques of Theistic arguments / Arguments for atheism / The problem of evil / Atheism and morality / Atheism and the meaningfulness of life / Aquinas and atheism / History of (Western) atheism -- From the pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic Age / The first Millennium / The Medieval period / Renaissance and Reformation / The Age of Enlightenment / The (long) nineteenth century / The twentieth century / New atheism / Worldviews and systems -- Humanism / Existentialism / Marxism / Analytic philosophy / Jewish atheism / Buddhism / Jainism / Hinduism / Atheism and the natural sciences -- Naturalism and the scientific method / Atheism and the rise of science / Atheism and Darwinism / Atheism and the physical sciences / Atheism and the social sciences -- Atheism and the secularization thesis / The psychology of atheism / Atheism and cognitive science / Atheism and societal health / Atheism, gender, and sexuality / Atheism, health, and well-being / Conversion and deconversion / A world of atheism : global demographics / Western Europe / North America / Central and Eastern Europe / The Islamic world / India / Japan / Atheism and the arts -- Literature / The visual arts / Music / Film
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