CFP: Idols & Mysteries: Atheists and their Sophisticated Respondents

It is often claimed by liberal theologians (Terry Eagleton, Gavin Hyman, Marcus Borg, Denys Turner, John Haught, etc) and popular writers (Karen Armstrong, David Bentley Hart, Marcus Borg, etc) that atheists misconstrue religion. One common accusation is that atheists reject the idolatrous god of conservative theology but not the mysterious, incomprehensible god of liberal negative theology. In turn, atheists have claimed that “sophisticated theology” does not take seriously the views of most religious adherents and that there is no need to read sophisticated discourses about God if God does not exist (P.Z. Myer’s “Courtier’s Reply”).

The editor(s) seek abstracts for papers to be included in an anthology evaluating the liberal theological responses to contemporary atheism. Please send abstracts to [email protected]. Possible questions include:

• Do atheists reject the wrong kind of God?

• How should P.Z. Myer’s notion of the Courtier’s Reply be evaluated philosophically?

• Are the conceptions of God provided by liberal theologians reasonable or should they be rejected?

• Are the conceptions of God liberal theologians provide susceptible to common atheistic arguments (the Problem of Evil, the Argument from Inconsistent Revelations, etc)?

• How should we understand the historical relationship between liberal theology and atheism?