Atheism and Love in the Modern Era: Practicing Indifference

by Colby Dickinson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350475380
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/15/2025
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Colby Dickinson is Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Chicago, USA.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. First Series: The Secularization of Religion
2. Second Series: Embracing Uncertainty in a Pluralistic World
3. Third Series: Love as Non-Absolute, Conditional and Impossible
4. Fourth Series: The Indifference of Love Potentially Unites Religion and Atheism
Conclusions
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Religion's future, an idea provocative to atheists, is compellingly re-imagined as self-dissolution in the name of love and indifference, offering a highly attractive vision, even for those like me who long for us to leap over “necessary illusions” of absolute experiences like unconditional love” —Andrea Hurst, Professor of Philosophy, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

“Atheism and Love in the Modern Era is a courageous and thoughtful book: courageous, because it involves letting go of any and all claims to certainty and security; thoughtful, because it is written with a sensitivity to what such letting go actually involves. Dickinson writes with profound compassion for those who always and already find themselves excluded from our narratives of love, both religious and secular - if we can, anymore, sustain this distinction. His call for a love that is at once both less and so much more than we have imagined is a challenge to embrace detachment daily as a form of life.” —Robyn Horner, Professor of Theology, Australian Catholic University, Australia

“This book offers an intriguing look at the decline of faith and the rise of love in contemporary societies. Colby Dickinson believes that recovering God as "non-absolute" - as a fragile, weak, and charitable God - will help us acknowledge what religious traditions can still offer and how we can live better existences. He works through Agamben, Žižek, and Irigaray, among others, to demonstrate that the future of atheism depends upon a complete indifference to religion , wheareas religion's future in letting go of its institutions and claims to power.” —Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

From the Publisher