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Why I Am Not a Secularist
Philosophy/Political Science Challenges the limitations of traditional secularism-now in paperback! Religion's influence in American politics is obvious in recent debates about school prayer, abortion, and homosexuality. Many liberal secularists decry this trend, rejecting any interaction between politics and religion. But in Why I Am Not a Secularist, distinguished political theorist William E. Connolly argues that secularism, although admirable in its pursuit of freedom and diversity, too often undercuts these goals through its narrow and intolerant understandings of public reason. In response, he crafts a new model of public life that more accurately reflects the needs of contemporary politics. "This is a first-rate book by one of the most creative political theorists in the country. As powerful as it is original." Stephen White, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University "William Connolly is one of the subtlest, boldest, and most intellectually fertile political/moral theorists now writing in the United States. His book is an incisive critique of dogmatic rationalism, an immensely valuable analysis of the psycho-social dynamics of 'identity politics'-both local and global-and a compelling argument for a strenuous and potentially self-transforming ethics of 'critical engagement.'" Barbara Herrnstein Smith, author of Belief and Resistance William E. Connolly is professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University. Translation Inquiries: University of Minnesota Press.
Price: $18.00
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Living Without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided
Ronald Aronson has a mission: to demonstrate that a life without religion can be coherent, moral, and committed Optimistic and stirring, Living Without God is less interested in attacking religion than in developing a positive philosophy for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, and freethinkers. Aronson proposes contemporary answers to Immanuel Kant’s three great questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope? Grounded in the sense that we are deeply dependent and interconnected beings who are rooted in the universe, nature, history, society, and the global economy, Living Without God explores the experience and issues of 21st-century secularists, especially in America. Reflecting on such perplexing questions as why we are grateful for life’s gifts, who or what is responsible for inequalities, and how to live in the face of aging and dying, Living Without God is also refreshingly topical, touching on such subjects as contemporary terrorism, the war in Iraq, affirmative action, and the remarkable rise of Barack Obama. .
Price: $16.50
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Melancholic Freedom: Agency and the Spirit of Politics
Why does agency -- the capacity to make choices and to act in the world -- matter to us? Why is it meaningful that our intentions have effects in the world, that they reflect our sense of identity, that they embody what we value? What kinds of motivations are available for political agency and judgment in an age that lacks the enthusiasm associated with the great emancipatory movements for civil rights and gender equality? What are the conditions for the possibility of being an effective agent when the meaning of democracy has become less transparent? David Kyuman Kim addresses these crucial questions by uncovering the political, moral, philosophical, and religious dimensions of human agency. Kim treats agency as a form of religious experience that reflects implicit and explicit notions of the good. Of particular concern are the moral, political, and religious motivations that underpin an understanding of agency as meaningful action. Through a critical engagement with the work of theorists such as Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, and Stanley Cavell, Kim argues that late modern and postmodern agency is found most effectively at work in what he calls "projects of regenerating agency" or critical and strategic responses to loss. Agency as melancholic freedom begins and endures, Kim maintains, through the moral and psychic losses associated with a broad range of experiences, including the moral identities shaped by secularized modernity and the multifold forms of alienation experienced by those who suffer the indignities of racial, gender, class, and sexuality discrimination and oppression. Kim calls for renewing the sense of urgency in our political and moral engagements by seeing agency as a vocation, where the aspiration for self-transformation and the human need for hope are fundamental concerns..
Price: $52.00
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Icons of Unbelief: Atheists, Agnostics, and Secularists (Greenwood Icons)
In the opinion of many critics and philosophers, we are entering an age of atheism marked by the waning of Christian fundamentalism and the flourishing of secular thought. Never before has atheism and agnosticism been so prevalent in American society, as testified by the simultaneous appearance of 2 atheist volumes on the bestseller lists: Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion and Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation. This volume profiles some of the key figures and groups who have advanced religious unbelief over the past 200 years. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on 27 iconic figures of unbelief, such as: Charles Bradlaugh Richard Dawkins Daniel C. Dennett Albert Einstein The Existentialists The Founding Fathers Sigmund Freud Sam Harris Robert G. Ingersoll Friedrich Nietzsche Madalyn Murray O'Hair Mark Twain Voltaire And more. Each entry discusses the ideas and lasting significance of the person or group, provides sidebars of interesting information and quotations, and closes with a list of works for further reading. The volume ends with a selected, general bibliography. Students in history and social studies classes will welcome this reference as a guide to the American separation of Church and State and to the ideas central to contemporary political debates..
Price: $75.00
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