Customer Reviews

Anatheism: Returning to God After God (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anatheism is a worthwhile philosophical read. It takes the thoughts of earlier works like Kolakowski's Metaphysical Horror and ramps it into "high-gear" as it were.

The basic premise is, "What do we do after religion" and postulates a positive agnosticism--that is if we cannot know a god then we should strive to enjoy life no matter what is waiting for us (even if it is scary) after we die it is more important to live.

The wording is poetic, which is fun to read but also at times frustrating to understand, but completely worth reading. I feel like this is one of the more important recent works I have seen on the market.

This was shipped with haste and arrived well. I haven't yet read it, but I trust the judgement of friends who find it challenging and a fascinating exploration of our post modern world.

This book is about doubting atheists - whom it would be more honest to call agnostics, only atheism is more 'sexy' thanks to the machinations of the evil Ditchkins*. It is intended for those who, in Professor Kearney's words, after ridding themselves of "God" still seek God, and again he's being less than straightforward - he surely means those who after ridding themselves of God, still seek "God" - but Kearney is determined, as a lapsed lapsed Catholic, to find something concrete to say about that of which he concedes one can know 'virtually nothing', pretty obviously; if we throw out dogma and ritual we are left with scholastic hairsplitting, pinheads without the angels. In his preface he uses transit as a verb (he means travel or pass, but it does suggest public transport - Heaven abhors jargon!) and he and his editor both have trouble with the word Scorsese. But I'm giving it 2 stars and hoping for enlightenment

*cf the woefully mistitled Atheist Delusions, whose author, a suspected closet unbeliever, has been garlanded with prizes by the fearful faithful, which having geared up for battle avoids the Big Issues (beyond the odd sniping - he's a specialist in snark) for quibbles about early Christianity and paganism, matters of sublime indifference to either camp