What is Reddit's opinion of Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies?

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> Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart

If I'm going to read a history book, as this one claims to be, I'd rather read it from a historian. And there are actual historians who deal with correcting bad ideas like the Dark Ages myth.

https://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Delusions-Revolution-Fashinable-Fashionable-ebook/dp/B00D99NS4O

This is largely outside of his field, and Hart is far too smug to be convincing to many outside of the faith.

I would recommend reading Atheist Delusions. Ignore the sensational title. The aim of the book is to act as a strident defense of Christianity against some of the vulgar (in the sense that they are simple and unnuanced) attacks on it while also acting as a beacon for why Christianity is so important and unique. David Bentley Hart is a fantastic philosopher who is well-versed in history, philosophy, and rhetoric. It is a short, but substantive read that will educate you immensely on Christianity's incredible history and wonderful ethos of love, mercy, and compassion.

I suspect this is something of a false understanding of history. I noticed in Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis mentions he doesn't believe in the dark ages and renaissance in the traditional sense, and that has sense got me wondering if there hasn't been some distortion of history to fit a cleaner narrative.

I just picked up this book by David Bentley Hart, which despite the inflammatory title, sets out to correct the common understanding of the last 2,000 years, the dark ages and renaissance included.

It's curious. I'm looking forward to learning other perspectives than what I was taught growing up, and suspect that the narrative your graph suggests is flawed.

Well, hop on it! That’s where the “actual thought” of Christianity is to be found. It would be immeasurably more valuable to spend time contending with them rather than the oft-ignorant strangers you seem to routinely interact with on this subreddit.

I would imagine that the philosophical corpus of western theism would naturally be of interest to a critically engaged atheist. Even if you don’t agree with the conclusions of such philosophers, you’ll at least develop a far more robust form of atheism; certainly more so than the banal Richard Dawkins-esque type of atheism that I usually see around here.

Here are two initial suggestions. I would recommend something more foundational, but philosophy is harder than most people imagine, and these contemporary works will provide appropriate contextualization/defining of terms/summarizations of philosophical history for typical laymen who don’t haven’t gone through 4+ years of a formal philosophy program at university:

1. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, Hart

2. Five Proofs for the Existence of God, Feser

Reading these will also allow for you to more clearly figure out how to branch out into other important philosophical work, the names of which might be unknown/relatively inaccessible to you at the moment.

i don’t think that justifies the way you’ve acted towards me, and i think you’re wrong.

it’s not inherently hierarchical and its history is often distorted to paint it as an overwhelmingly negative force in history, which is really inaccurate.

recommended readings:

Declaration of Sentiments by William Lloyd Garrison in 1838 (based christianity)

Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart (he’s an anarcho-communist; forgive the title, was the publisher’s move to get sales, the author himself doesn’t like it)

i think it’d also be worth your time checking out Slavoj Žižek’s writing/talks on christianity, if you want a perspective from a well known materialist

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5U9X1wsfk — most digestible, this video from Peter Rollins which is totally my vibe :)

anyway, i understand your angst with religion and specifically christianity all too well. just hope you’ll be nice about it in the future! peace and love ✌🏻☀️