Becoming atheist : humanism and the secular West / Callum G. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Callum G., 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Secularism--History--20th century.

Secularism.

Atheism--History--20th century.

Atheism.

Secularization (Theology)--History--20th century.

Secularization (Theology).

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 231 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, 2017.

Summary:

The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to millions. We are in the midst of one of humankind's great cultural changes. How has this happened? Becoming Atheist explores how people of the sixties' generation have come to live their lives as if there is no God. It tells the life narratives of those from Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Canada who came from Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds to be without faith. Based on interviews with 85 people born in 18 countries, Callum Brown shows how gender, ethnicity and childhood shape how individuals lose religion. This book moves from statistical and broad cultural analysis to use frank, humorous and sometimes harrowing personal testimony. "Becoming Atheist" exposes people's role in renegotiating their own identities, and fashioning a secular and humanist culture for the Western world.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

One by one 1

Imagining secularization 3

Of numbers and cultures 5

What is the secular? 8

Researching the little imagined atheist 12

2 Narratives of Belief and Unbelief 20

Oral history and religion 20

The Christian self 21

The fortified religious self 26

Race and ethnicity 30

Tire feminist liberation narrative 31

Secularization narratives 36

Conclusion 41

3 The Atheist Child 43

Religion and child development 43

Religious childhoods 45

Growing up faithless 47

Converting the family 51

Childhood disaffection 54

The child atheist 58

'What colour is life?' The youthful maturation of atheism 62

4 The Silent and Indifferent Atheist 66

Approaching indifference 66

The silence of non-belief 70

The character of indifference 76

Leaving indifference 82

5 Women, Feminism and Becoming Faithless 87

Narrating the gendered non-religious self 87

'It's really rotten being a woman sometimes': Trauma and the family 91

'To be a person': Living feminism and the loss of religion 96

The New Age and 'absolutely no god thing' 105

Flying through the air 109

6 Men, Reason and Radicalism 113

Absences and silences 113

Reason - the male prerogative? 115

Leaving the priesthood 121

Reading 126

Deserting dysfunction 129

Trauma 131

Being an atheist man 134

7 Atheism and Ethnicity 137

The African American 139

The Jews 144

The Muslim 150

The Hindus 154

The whites 158

It's not for me to judge humanism 159

8 The Humanist Condition 161

After religion 161

The hesitant atheist 163

Finding the humanist condition 168

Becoming atheist with a heart 174

The transition generation 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Brown, Callum G., 1953- author. Becoming atheist

ISBN:

9781474224499

1474224490

9781474224529

1474224520

OCLC:

955778757