Spirituality without God: a global history of thought and practice

"Spirituality without God is the first global survey of "godless" spirituality. Long before "spiritual but not religious" became the catchphrase of the day, there were religious and spiritual traditions in India, China, and the West that denied the existence of God. Peter He...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Heehs, Peter 1948- (Author)
Format: Electronic Book
Language:English
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WorldCat: WorldCat
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: London Bloomsbury Academic 2018
London Bloomsbury Publishing 2018
In:Year: 2018
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Spirituality / Atheism / Agnosticism
Further subjects:B Electronic books
B Spirituality History
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:"Spirituality without God is the first global survey of "godless" spirituality. Long before "spiritual but not religious" became the catchphrase of the day, there were religious and spiritual traditions in India, China, and the West that denied the existence of God. Peter Heehs begins by looking at godless traditions in the ancient world. Indian religions such as Jainism and Buddhism showed the way to liberation through individual effort. In China, Confucians and Daoists taught how to live in harmony with nature and society. Philosophies of the Greco-Roman world, such as Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism, focused on enhancing the quality of life rather than buying the favor of the gods through sacrifice or worship. Heehs shows how these traditions, rediscovered during the Renaissance, helped jump-start the European Enlightenment and opened the way to the atheism and agnosticism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The personal, inner approach to religion became known as "spirituality." Spirituality without God is a counterbalance to theistic narratives that have dominated the field, as well as an introduction to modes of spiritual thought and practice that may appeal to people who have no interest in God."--Bloomsbury Publishing
Introduction : religion and spirituality, gods and godlessness -- Theistic and nontheistic religions in the ancient world -- Defending and debating tradition -- The triumph of theism -- The coming of modernity and the decline of God -- Secularizing the sacred -- The death and afterlife of God
Item Description:Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-272) and index
ISBN:1350056235
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5040/9781350056237