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The God Debaters

New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium

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  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Adrian Rosenfeldt

    1. La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia

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  • Offers a new perspective on the New Atheist literature

  • Provides an account of New Atheism has a feature of identity

  • Engages with the major thinkers of the millennial God debate

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-v
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  2. Introduction

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 1-35

  3. Richard Dawkins: Public Professor of Science

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 37-83

  4. The Mythos of Karen Armstrong

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 85-128

  5. Christopher Hitchens’ New Enlightenment

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 129-177

  6. Terry Eagleton’s Revolution

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 179-221

  7. Conclusion

    • Adrian Rosenfeldt
    Pages 223-228

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 229-248
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia

    Adrian Rosenfeldt

About the author

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.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The God Debaters

  • Book Subtitle: New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium

  • Authors: Adrian Rosenfeldt

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96741-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-96740-6Published: 05 May 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-96743-7Published: 06 May 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-96741-3Published: 04 May 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: V, 248

  • Topics: Sociology of Religion, Social Philosophy, Political Science

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