Atheism and Love in the Modern Era - by Colby Dickinson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A critique of religious belief which addresses the question of how a secular world can continue to mine religious traditions for their conceptual and emotional riches. Taking in popular, philosophical and theological discussions of religion, Colby Dickinson argues that theism and atheism taken together can peel back the layers of abstraction, alienation, and disillusionment that always accompany our humanity in order to help us really see how it is to exist in this world. Atheism and Faith in the Modern World takes up the notion of love as a cultivation and practice of indifference-a crucial concept that unites both religion and atheism"--

Book Synopsis

Discussing the decline of faith and the

rise of love in the modern era, Colby

Dickinson proposes a critique of religious

belief which addresses how a secular

world can continue to mine religious

traditions for their conceptual and

emotional riches. Atheism and Love in

the Modern Era argues that theism and

atheism taken together can peel back

the layers of abstraction, alienation, and

disillusionment that always accompany

our humanity in order to help us really

see how it is to exist in this world. To

illuminate this vision, Dickinson takes up

the notion of love as a cultivation and

practice of indifference, as a letting go

of one's identity-a crucial concept that

unites both religion and atheism through

a concerted effort to detach from

them both.

In dialogue with a variety of thinkers,

including Zizek, Agamben, Derrida,

Irigaray, Fromm, and Taylor, this is

essential reading for those interested

in popular debates around theism and

atheism, as well as those concerned with

the ways in which continental and analytic

philosophy have addressed the continued

significance of religious traditions.

Review Quotes

"Religion's future, an idea provocative to atheists, is compellingly re-imagined as self-dissolution in the name of love and indifference, offering a highly attractive vision, even for those like me who long for us to leap over "necessary illusions" of absolute experiences like unconditional love" --Andrea Hurst, Professor of Philosophy, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

"Atheism and Love in the Modern Era is a courageous and thoughtful book: courageous, because it involves letting go of any and all claims to certainty and security; thoughtful, because it is written with a sensitivity to what such letting go actually involves. Dickinson writes with profound compassion for those who always and already find themselves excluded from our narratives of love, both religious and secular - if we can, anymore, sustain this distinction. His call for a love that is at once both less and so much more than we have imagined is a challenge to embrace detachment daily as a form of life." --Robyn Horner, Professor of Theology, Australian Catholic University, Australia

"This book offers an intriguing look at the decline of faith and the rise of love in contemporary societies. Colby Dickinson believes that recovering God as "non-absolute" - as a fragile, weak, and charitable God - will help us acknowledge what religious traditions can still offer and how we can live better existences. He works through Agamben, Zizek, and Irigaray, among others, to demonstrate that the future of atheism depends upon a complete indifference to religion, wheareas religion's future in letting go of its institutions and claims to power." --Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

About the Author

Colby Dickinson is Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Chicago, USA.