Relational Atheism

Studying Unbelief in Ancient Greece

Ramón Soneira-Martínez, Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Alexander Kenneth Nagel, Jörg Rüpke

• Publisher: Kohlhammer Verlag
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783170471887
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Atheism

This book reorients the study of 'unbelief' in Ancient Greece by dismantling two persistent scholarly misconceptions: the portrayal of Greek atheism as a form of proto-modern secularity and the dismissal of the subject as merely a lexical dispute over definitions. By integrating a diverse range of philosophical, medical and epigraphical sources, the author contextualises irreligious stances within the discursive and social ecology that shaped Greek religiosity. Rather than representing an external negation of the divine, unbelief emerges as a historically specific modification of self-world relations. Leveraging relational sociology and contemporary Religious Studies, this analysis demonstrates how doubt, critique and denial took root within the fabric of lived ancient religion - from theatre and intellectual circles to civic conflict and the politics of impiety. The result is a transformative account of Greek unbelief and a transferable analytical model for future comparative and historical research.

Table of contents

• Cover & Impressum
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: An Underwater Archaeology of Unbelief
• 1 Unbelief and Atheism as Historical Tools
• 2 A Relational Approach to Unbelief
• 3 Lived Unbelief within Ancient Greek “Religion”
• 4 The Greek World and Its Interconnected Ecology
• 5 Religious Appropriation in Classical Athenian Drama
• 6 The Intellectualisation of Unbelief in the Athenian Chronotope
• 7 Atheistic Positions in Fifth-Century Athens
• 8 Unbelief and Religious Individualisation in Platonic Dialogues
• 9 Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Stichwortverzeichnis