Becoming Atheist: Humanism and the Secular West

Description

The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to millions. We are in the midst of one of humankind's great cultural changes. How has this happened? Becoming Atheist explores how people of the sixties' generation have come to live their lives as if there is no God. It tells the life narratives of those from Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Canada who came from Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds to be without faith. Based on interviews with 85 people born in 18 countries, Callum Brown shows how gender, ethnicity and childhood shape how individuals lose religion. This book moves from statistical and broad cultural analysis to use frank, humorous and sometimes harrowing personal testimony. Becoming Atheist exposes people's role in renegotiating their own identities, and fashioning a secular and humanist culture for the Western world. Review An ambitious book. Lively and well-written ... Brown's imaginative treatment certainly provides rich material for lively debates. * Times Higher Education * [A] readable little book. * Sofia * As the number of men and women rejecting religious faith continues to grow by leaps and bounds, so too grows the need for scholarship that illuminates this historical trend, and Callum Brown's latest work is among the best out there: astute, insightful, unbiased, and informative. So thorough, so thoughtful -- this work is highly recommended. Essential reading for those interested in religion's modern decline. * Phil Zuckerman, Pitzer College, USA and author of Living the Secular Life (Penguin, 2014) * Any book by Callum Brown is sure to be lively, provocative and full of new ideas. He is already internationally renowned as one of the leading historians of secularisation. This oral history of modern atheism and humanism from Vancouver to Tallinn, with long stops on the way in the USA and Britain, is further enriched by vivid detail and a warm sympathy with those whose stories he tells. * Hugh McLeod, University of Birmingham, UK * Callum Brown provides a convincing new interpretation of secularization in the West since 1945, using fascinating oral history narratives to identify key paths to atheism and humanism. He challenges a range of academic orthodoxies with compelling and original arguments. Brown demonstrates the significance of childhood rejection of religion for many lifelong atheists and the crucial intersection of feminism and family issues with the abandonment of religion for women, who have been central to secularizing trends since the 1960s. Other original arguments featured in this groundbreaking and very readable book further transform our understanding of the growing secularization of the modern West. * Lynne Marks, University of Victoria, Canada * One of the biggest cultural shifts in the west - especially the English speaking west - in modern history has been the movement away from religion and towards humanist beliefs and values. This is a people's history as much as it is a tale of cultural and intellectual elites but until now it has been under-studied and under-told. Callum Brown's masterly narrative puts that right and his great skill as an oral historian suits him for the task better than any other. * Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association, UK * About the Author Callum G. Brown is Professor of Late Modern European History at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is author of The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800-2000 (2nd edition 2009) and Religion and the Demographic Revolution: Women and Secularisation in Canada, UK, Ireland and USA since the 1960s (2012). Cover Contents List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements 1 Introduction One by one Imagining secularization Of numbers and cultures What is the secular? Researching the little imagined atheist 2 Narratives of Belief and Unbelief Oral history and religion The Christian self The fortified religious self Race and ethnicity The feminist liberation narrative Secularization narratives Conclusion 3 The Atheist Child Religion and child development Religious childhoods Growing up faithless Converting the family Childhood disaffection The child atheist ‘What colour is life?’ The youthful maturation of atheism 4 The Silent and Indifferent Atheist Approaching indifference The silence of non-belief The character of indifference Leaving indifference 5 Women, Feminism and Becoming Faithless Narrating the gendered non-religious self ‘It’s really rotten being a woman sometimes’: Trauma and the family ‘To be a person’: Living feminism and the loss of religion The New Age and ‘absolutely no god thing’ Flying through the air 6 Men, Reason and Radicalism Absences and silences Reason – the male prerogative? Leaving the priesthood Reading Deserting dysfunction Trauma Being an atheist man 7 Atheism and Ethnicity The African American The Jews The Muslim The Hindus The whites It’s not for me to judge humanism 8 The Humanist Condition After religion The hesitant atheist Finding the humanist condition Becoming atheist with a heart The transition generation Notes Sources Index