Atheism and Love in the Modern Era

Practicing Indifference

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.
The book is organized into four sections, each situating the concept of love in relation to a distinct theme: the first outlines modern secularized versions of various religious concepts, such as technology in the place of miracles or art in the place of religious revelation. The second argues that in a pluralistic world, the actual, lived realities of various religious communities and persons defy the static categories and classifications grouped under the umbrella of ‘religion’. The third section discusses and defines non-absolute love. The fourth section discusses how atheism, in its critiques of religion, misses the significance of de-centring the act of love.

Dickinson elaborates his reflections through lucid engagement with a variety of thinkers including Žižek, Agamben, Irigaray, Derrida, Erich Fromm, Charles Taylor and Philip Kitcher. 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.

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