secularism
The Atheist Churches Are Coming!
The Sunday Assembly, an atheist church service dreamed up by British comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans as a “godless congregation that celebrates life” hits U.S. shores today with an appearance in Manhattan. And there’s more to come: their Indigogo campaign plans to raise £500,000 to bring about a global godless revolution. While the media…
Studying Religion Is Revolutionary in China
Like pretty much everything else over there right now, religion is a growth industry in China. After decades of official repression a whole bunch of new religious movements—and, even more, new forms of old religions—are gathering steam. Trying to get a handle on this from back here in New York, I did an interview with…
Share Your Secular Story
The friendly secular fellow over at NonProphet Status, Chris Stedman, has just announced a new essay contest, Share Your Secular Story, which may be something y’all will be interested in: The stories of secular (Secular Humanist, Atheist, Agnostic, et al.) people are scattered because we as a people are scattered. We are not unified by…
Theology for Atheists
At the Guardian today, I’ve got a short bit about secular, mainly Continental philosophers who, in recent years, have turned to theology: [Slavoj Zizek] is one of several leading thinkers in recent years who, though coming out of a deeply secular and often-Marxist bent, have made a turn toward theology. In 1997, Alain Badiou published…
New York Literati on Growing Up Evangelical
“Panels are the new party,” declared the moderator of a recent panel put on by n+1, the magazine-in-chief of New York’s determinedly serious set. If so, 2009 has been a year of downright revelry for the magazine. Areas of inquiry have included the ’90s, the hipster, young conservatism, feminism, and, on Tuesday night, Christian evangelicalism,…
The Varieties of Unbelief and the Ghost of Richard Dawkins
When the City University of New York’s Graduate Center decided to convene last night’s session of its Great Issues Forum around the question, “What Are the Varieties of Unbelief?” they seem to have tried as best they could to avoid a New Atheist-style foodfight. The name itself gestures to the title of a 1964 book…
The Practice of Questioning
This came in a letter from Bruce Illig: Hello Editors, I just finished Jeff’s book [The Family], and had to subscribe to your site’s newsletter and become a facebook fan just to find a place to hide. The amazing book answered many questions of my past 40 years, most notably the relationship between “elite” and…
Relics & Renovations
One of the reasons KtB has seemed dead these past few months is that we (some of us, anyway) were off on a lengthy Near Eastern adventure. We spent much of the trip in Istanbul, light-headed with nargila smoke and ears-ruptured by over-exposure to roving bands of Ottoman Army reenactors: Turkey at the time was…
The Young and the Angstless
A new book about GenX Christians shows just how god-damned happy they really are.
Do the Right Thing, Damn It
America’s leading theologian on laying bricks and taking the Lord’s name in vain.
