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38 - Literature

from Part VI - Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2021

Michael Ruse
By
Andrew Tate
Edited by
Stephen Bullivant
Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Stephen Bullivant
Affiliation:
St Mary's University, Twickenham, London
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Summary

‘I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him’, observes the novelist and critic Julian Barnes in Nothing to be Frightened Of, a rather melancholy memoir that explores the ways in which theism seems to be both impossible and persistent in late modernity (2009, 1). Literature in English has a long and complicated relationship with non-belief. Barnes’ oxymoronic longing for a deity in whom belief is no longer sustainable is symptomatic of a very long-standing tradition of sorrowful scepticism. Indeed, J. Hillis Miller famously argues that ‘[p]ost-medieval literature records, among other things, the gradual withdrawal of God from the world’ (1975, 1).

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Chapter
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The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 686 - 702
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Literature
  • Edited by Stephen Bullivant, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Atheism
  • Online publication: 25 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108562324.039
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Literature
  • Edited by Stephen Bullivant, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Atheism
  • Online publication: 25 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108562324.039
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Literature
  • Edited by Stephen Bullivant, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Atheism
  • Online publication: 25 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108562324.039
Available formats
×