The Origins of Agnosticism Victorian Unbelief and the Limits of Knowledge / Bernard Lightman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lightman, Bernard V., 1950- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agnosticism--History--19th century.

Agnosticism.

Great Britain--Intellectual life--19th century.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (x, 249 pages ) illustrations)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Originally published in 1987. The Origins of Agnosticism provides a reinterpretation of agnosticism and its relationship to science. Professor Lightman examines the epistemological basis of agnostics' learned ignorance, studying their core claim that "God is unknowable." To address this question, he reconstructs the theory of knowledge posited by Thomas Henry Huxley and his network of agnostics. In doing so, Lightman argues that agnosticism was constructed on an epistemological foundation laid by Christian thought. In addition to undermining the continuity in the intellectual history of religious thought, Lightman exposes the religious origins of agnosticism.

Contents:

The power of modern agnosticism

The adnostic conundrum

Mansel and the Kantian tradition

Herbert Spencer and the worship of the unknowable

Disillusionment with attack on orthodoxy

Religion, theology, and the church agnostic

The new natural theology and the holy trinity of agnosticism

The tragedy of agnosticism.

Notes:

Originally published as Johns Hopkins Press, 1987

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-239) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-3375-2

1-4214-3140-8

OCLC:

1123919307