Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Atheism and the Goddess

Cross-Cultural Approaches with a Focus on South Asia

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Anway Mukhopadhyay

    1. Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Studies the relationship between atheism and the Goddess
  • Explores both Western and non-Western perspectives
  • Employes both a pluralist and comparative framework

  • 286 Accesses

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Religion, the Goddess and Atheism

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 1-20

  3. Thealogy and Atheism: Points of Convergence and Divergence

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 21-43

  4. Is There a Tradition of Rejecting the Goddess?

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 45-71

  5. Starting or Ceasing to Believe in the Goddess: Faith Dynamics in India’s Living Goddess Traditions

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 73-102

  6. Atheists and the Goddess

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 103-126

  7. Conclusion: A Goddessless World or Goddess as the World?

    • Anway Mukhopadhyay
    Pages 127-131

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 133-141
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book seeks to explore the complex modes of interface between religion, atheism, and the Goddess in multicultural contexts. While atheism has often been seen as an interrogation of and a battle against God, the gender dimension of this discourse has not been sufficiently negotiated. Is the fight against God also a fight against the Goddess? Or is there something common between the ideological thrust of the battle against God the “Father” in atheism and the interrogation of the Divine Father in thealogy? Can the Goddess be seen as an entity radically different from the imperious transcendental that the atheists find embodied in God the Father? Or, can the Goddess be seen as “transcendental” as well as immanent, and hence subjected to the same atheist denial of transcendence to which God is subjected in non-theistic or anti-theistic arguments? With this volume, Anway Mukhopadhyay embarks on a difficult project of epistemologically, ideologically and even politically renegotiating andreorienting some of the fundamental issues involved in the discussions of and debates over atheism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India

    Anway Mukhopadhyay

About the author

Anway Mukhopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. He has published widely on goddess cultures, including his recent book The Authority of Female Speech in Indian Goddess Traditions (Palgrave, 2020).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Atheism and the Goddess

  • Book Subtitle: Cross-Cultural Approaches with a Focus on South Asia

  • Authors: Anway Mukhopadhyay

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27395-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-27394-0Published: 22 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-27395-7Published: 21 March 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VII, 141

  • Topics: Religious Studies, general, Hinduism, Gender Studies, History of South Asia

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation