Atheism In Christianity Pa

"Only an atheist can be a good Christian and only a Christian can be a good atheist," wrote Ernst Bloch. Yet unlike Dawkins and Hitchens, who perceive religion as an opiate handed out by repressive priest- and mullah-run states, it was not enough for Bloch to posit religious belief as a delusion. Belief for him rested in social context. It could not simply be dismissed as "the sigh of the oppressed creature in a hostile world" without recognizing that the sigh contained the pre-illumination of a different, better world. Atheism in Christianity is a detailed historical study of the Bible and its long standing fascination across classes, locating its appeal in the stories that oppose the under-classes to authority and that promise transcendence. A new introduction by Terry Eagleton will bring this classic up to date for modern audiences.

Ernst Bloch (1885–1977) is one of the most important German Marxist thinkers of the 20th century and one of the great theorists of utopia. A friend of Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht and Theodor Adorno, his works include The Principle of Hope, Spirit of Utopia and Traces.

Peter Thompson, for many years the Head of Plant Physiology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a pioneer in the conservation of threatened plant species, laid the foundations for the Millennium Seed Bank.