Battling the Gods

Atheism in the Ancient World

Tim Whitmarsh

$22.99

Paperback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

Faber & Faber
25 January 2017

History; Classical history & classical civilisation; Agnosticism & atheism; History of ideas

How new is atheism?

In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean to recover the stories of those who first refused the divinities.

Long before the Enlightenment sowed the seeds of disbelief in a deeply Christian Europe, atheism was a matter of serious public debate in the Greek world. But history is written by those who prevail, and the Age of Faith mostly suppressed the lively free-thinking voices of antiquity.

Tim Whitmarsh brings to life the fascinating ideas of Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; and Epicurus and his followers. He shows how the early Christians came to define themselves against atheism, and so suppress the philosophy of disbelief.

Battling the Gods is the first book on the origins of the secular values at the heart of the modern state. Authoritative and bold, provocative and humane, it reveals how atheism and doubt, far from being modern phenomena, have intrigued the human imagination for thousands of years.

By: Tim Whitmarsh
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 273g
ISBN: 9780571279319
ISBN 10: 0571279317
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 25 January 2017
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tim Whitmarsh is the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University. A well-known specialist in the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome, he has appeared on BBC radio and TV, and written for the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and Literary Review.