Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- 1 Linguistic History of the Terms ‘Atheism’ and ‘Atheist’
- 2 Histories of Atheism: Key Questions and Disputes
- 3 Israel and the Near East
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
3 - Israel and the Near East
from Part I - Preliminaries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 September 2021
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- 1 Linguistic History of the Terms ‘Atheism’ and ‘Atheist’
- 2 Histories of Atheism: Key Questions and Disputes
- 3 Israel and the Near East
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
What can be said about Israel and the Near East in the history of atheism? One way to approach this question is to take a step back and look at some of the presuppositions, problems, and perspectives involved in the genealogy of the specific scholarly concepts, concerns, and categories in the associated research. In other words, the history of atheism in relation to Israel and the Near East is also itself an idea with a history, a more concise reconstruction of which is long overdue. I shall do so with a brief summary of a selection of assorted nuances characterizing the literature on the subject.
First, perhaps trivially, scholars whose writings explicitly refer to ‘atheism’ in the contexts of Israel and the Near East are, for the most part, concerned with the ancient world – that is, ancient Israel and the ancient Near East.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 34 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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