Review of the book: "Short History of Atheism", by Gavin Hyman

The author is a theologian and this book is intended for theologians only. Whoever expects a "short history of atheism" - like me - will be disappointed.

The core thesis of the book is already at the beginning (basically the rest of the book is a detailed analysis of this thesis):

"The advent of modernity brought with it a transformed conception of God, a distinctively 'modern' theism. When God is understood to be an object of thought, then God is created in the image of humanity. God comes to be conceived in human terms, his transcendence is domesticated and, in some instances at least, God increasingly takes on the characteristics of a 'big person'. In effect, God becomes a projection of the human subject."

Atheism is a thoroughly modern phenomenon, and moreover it is a kind of "collateral damage" of a development of the understanding of God, because at the beginning of modernity God was more and more humanized, the medieval idea of God as ultimate subject - to which man and the whole world stood opposite as "objects", is reversed: now humans understand themselves more and more as subjects and masters and stand opposite the world as such, which leads to God also becoming an object, a special, elevated object, but an object nevertheless . It is no surprise when people take a closer look at this object "God" and discover that it has human traits, which is not surprising, since this anthropomorphized God is the result of objectification brought about by the human mind.

From there it is only a small and logical step to the conclusion that this God is nothing more than a fiction produced by human minds. And atheism becomes all but inevitable.

What disturbed me about the book was that the author argues theologically only. When he deals with the 20th century (in the last chapter), for instance, he quotes (at length !) other theologians. The atheists are only briefly mentioned. From the author's point of view they cannot be taken seriously anyway. Intellectually the music plays on the side of theology (and philosophy), where the modern understanding of God is being debated, and modern atheism is only a by-product of this (modern!) understanding of God - which of course the stupid atheists do not understand, because they lack the intellectual depth and horizon (which, if one looks at the so-called "new atheists" around Richard Dawkins, is a quite correct assessment).

My conclusion: whoever is theologically educated and loves the "big picture" of the history of ideas will get his money's worth in this book. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a short history of atheism, you better buy "Atheism. A very short introduction" by Julian Baggini