Special Topics in the Study of Religion: Theism, Atheism, and Secularization

Subject associations
REL 510
Term
Fall 2018
Instructors
Denys A. Turner
Registrar description

"One and the same is the study of opposites," says Aristotle, and any study of atheism must take account both of what gods atheists deny and what atheisms theists resist. The first task of this course is to examine some basic theist models that atheists deny, specifically those of Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and Karl Barth: what do they affirm? And then to examine four styles of atheism in the modern/post-modern eras--those of Feuerbach-Marx, Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, and Dawkins-Dennett. Also, what about secularization: is it wishful thinking, or is it really happening?