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Drawing on ethnographic inquiry and the anthropological literature on doubt and atheism, this volume explores people's reluctance to pursue religion. The contributors capture the experiences of godless people and examine their perspectives on the role of religion in their personal and public lives. In doing so, the volume contributes to a critical understanding of the processes of disengagement from religion and reveals the challenges and paradoxes that godless people face.
List of contents
Introduction: Godless People, Doubt, and Atheism
Ruy Llera Blanes and Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic Chapter 1. Ambivalent Atheist Identities: Power and Non-religious Culture in Contemporary Britain
Lois Lee Chapter 2. Godless People and Dead Bodies: Materiality and the Morality of Atheist Materialism
Jacob Copeman and Johannes Quack Chapter 3. Atheist Political Cultures in Independent Angola
Ruy Llera Blanes and Abel Paxe Chapter 4. Forget Dawkins: Notes toward an Ethnography of Religious Belief and Doubt
Paul-François Tremlett and Fang-Long Shih Chapter 5. Antagonistic Insights: Evolving Soviet Atheist Critiques of Religion and Why They Matter for Anthropology
Sonja Luehrmann Chapter 6. Confessional Anthropology
Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic Chapter 7. On Atheism and Non-religion: An Afterword
Matthew Engelke Bibliograpghy
Index
About the author
Roy Llera Blanes is a Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Spanish National Research Council.
Summary
Drawing on ethnographic inquiry and the anthropological literature on doubt and atheism, this volume explores people's reluctance to pursue religion.
Additional text
“This [insightful volume] is a much-needed collection of multiple explanations of lived atheisms and non-religion from different settings…[It] will attract anthropologists and the general reader alike.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)
“The individual chapters and the introduction all contribute to advancing and nuancing existing theories of ‘non-religion’, religious disaffiliation, atheism, etc., and is, on the whole rather innovative, and well written.” • Anthropological Notebooks
“The volume excels at making clear the importance of geographic context in considering non-religion and society while simultaneously presenting research that raises big questions about contemporary non-religion…a sound contribution to the study of non-religion.” • Reading Religion
