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.
- 296 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Also available from Bloomsbury
- Title Page
- Contents
- Prologue: A religion is born
- 1 Introduction: Religion and spirituality, gods and godlessness
- 2 Theistic and nontheistic religions in the ancient world
- 3 Defending and debating tradition
- 4 The triumph of theism
- 5 The coming of modernity and the decline of God
- 6 Secularizing the sacred
- 7 The death and afterlife of God
- Epilogue: Spiritual but still religious?
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright Page
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Yes, you can access Spirituality without God by Peter Heehs in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Indian & South Asian History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.