Atheism and the Goddess: Cross-Cultural Approaches with a Focus on South Asia

ISBN-13: 9783031273940 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023

Anway Mukhopadhyay

Opis

This book seeks to explore the complex modes of interface between religion, atheism, and the Goddess in multicultural contexts. While atheism has often been seen as an interrogation of and a battle against God, the gender dimension of this discourse has not been sufficiently negotiated. Is the fight against God also a fight against the Goddess? Or is there something common between the ideological thrust of the battle against God the “Father” in atheism and the interrogation of the Divine Father in thealogy? Can the Goddess be seen as an entity radically different from the imperious transcendental that the atheists find embodied in God the Father? Or, can the Goddess be seen as “transcendental” as well as immanent, and hence subjected to the same atheist denial of transcendence to which God is subjected in non-theistic or anti-theistic arguments? With this volume, Anway Mukhopadhyay embarks on a difficult project of epistemologically, ideologically and even politically renegotiating and reorienting some of the fundamental issues involved in the discussions of and debates over atheism.

Spis treści

1 Introduction: Religion, the Goddess and Atheism.

2 Thealogy and Atheism: Points of Convergence and Divergence.

3 Is There a Tradition of Rejecting the Goddess?.

4 Starting or Ceasing to Believe in the Goddess: Faith Dynamics in India’s Living Goddess Traditions.

5 Atheists and the Goddess.

6 Conclusion: A Goddessless World or Goddess as the World?.

O autorze

Anway Mukhopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. He has published widely on goddess cultures, including his recent book The Authority of Female Speech in Indian Goddess Traditions (Palgrave, 2020).

Blurb

This book seeks to explore the complex modes of interface between religion, atheism, and the Goddess in multicultural contexts. While atheism has often been seen as an interrogation of and a battle against God, the gender dimension of this discourse has not been sufficiently negotiated. Is the fight against God also a fight against the Goddess? Or is there something common between the ideological thrust of the battle against God the “Father” in atheism and the interrogation of the Divine Father in thealogy? Can the Goddess be seen as an entity radically different from the imperious transcendental that the atheists find embodied in God the Father? Or, can the Goddess be seen as “transcendental” as well as immanent, and hence subjected to the same atheist denial of transcendence to which God is subjected in non-theistic or anti-theistic arguments? With this volume, Anway Mukhopadhyay embarks on a difficult project of epistemologically, ideologically and even politically renegotiating and reorienting some of the fundamental issues involved in the discussions of and debates over atheism.

Anway Mukhopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. He has published widely on goddess cultures, including his recent book The Authority of Female Speech in Indian Goddess Traditions (Palgrave, 2020).