THE RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF ATHEISM

by Alasdair & Paul Ricoeur MacIntyre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1969

The subtitle of this provocative little book, ""The Debate About God: Victorian Relevance and Contemporary Irrelevance,"" is a fair summary of its contents and conclusions. The authors believe that the Victorian battle over the existence and attributes of God served a tension creating purpose, one which has been neutralized by contemporary indifference to belief and by unwillingness to believe. ""Any presentation of theism which is able to secure a hearing from a secular audience has undergone a transformation that has evacuated it entirely of its theistic content."" They pursue this thesis through an investigation of the significance and interrelation of ""religion,"" ""faith,"" and ""atheism"" (the latter being of the Nietzschean-Freudian variety) and through an analysis of the two principal functions of religion: taboo (""On Accusation"") and shelter (""On Consolation""). They demonstrate to their own, and perhaps even to the reader's, satisfaction that any theistic attempt to render religious belief relevant to the world of the twentieth century must carry within itself the seeds of its own failure and an admission of its own inadequacy. The Religious Significance of Atheism may not shake the world, or even the, church; its appeal is too intellectual, and its argumentation too subtle. Yet is is, paradoxically, an arsenal of weapons in the continuing ""debate about God.

Pub Date: March 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Columbia Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION