Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daoism to Spinoza and Beyond [Paperback]

A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism.

Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we needmoreGod (the “turn to religion”) orlessreligion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, evenreligiousrejection of God: an affirmative atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it—a mystical atheism.

In the legacies of Daoism and Buddhism as well as Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bataille, Ziporyn discovers a critique of theism that develops into a new, positive sensibility—at once deeply atheist and richly religious.Experiments in Mystical Atheismargues that these “godless epiphanies” hold the key to renewing philosophy today.Brook Ziporynis the Mircea Eliade Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He is the author and translator of many books, most recentlyDaodejing.Preface

Introduction
The Weird Idea
God as Default?
Preaching to the Choir
Let’s Assume a Brain Tumor: Futile Attacks on Monotheistic Faith
Atheism Postmonotheist and Nonmonotheist: Against and after Nancy
Religious Innovation as Backfiring Detheology
Atheism as Uberpiety

Part I: The Sleeping Island
Chapter 1: Purposivity and Consciousness
NoûsasArché: Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Design versus Infinity: Two Rival Explanations for the Intricacy of Existence
Intelligible Good/s versus Infinite W/hole/s in Plato’sSymposium
The Hypertrophy of Purposive Consciousness: Animism Gone Wlã/