Suspicion and Faith

by Westphal, Merold

• ISBN13: 9780802806437
• ISBN10: 0802806430
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-07-01
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

Are there legitimate uses for atheists' critiques of religion? Westphal says yes, if we take a closer look not at the atheists' arguments against the existence of God, but at their observations about the sometimes disreputable functions of religious practice and belief, as demonstrated in the "atheism of suspicion", put forth by Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Hermeneutics of Suspicion
Atheism for Lent	p. 3
On Learning When Not to Refute Atheism	p. 10
Help from Gilbert and Sullivan	p. 18
Religious Fictions Too?	p. 25
Freud and the Psychoanalysis of the Believing Soul
Freud's Pessimism	p. 33
Freud's Scientism	p. 38
Freud's Suspicion I: Dreams and Wish Fulfillment	p. 43
Freud's Suspicion II: Doctrines and Wish Fulfillment	p. 50
On Remembering When Not to Refute Atheism	p. 55
Freud's Suspicion III: Doctrines and Distortion	p. 61
The Paranoid Dr. Schreber as Victim	p. 65
The Paranoid Dr. Schreber as Redeemer	p. 71
The Atheist Dr. Freud as Theologian of Original Sin	p. 77
Ceremonial as Defense	p. 83
Ceremonial as Compromise	p. 89
They Know Not What They Do	p. 96
Of Savages and Salieri	p. 103
Of Obedience and Sacrifice	p. 110
Willful Renunciation and the One-Way Covenant	p. 115
Marx and the Critique of Religion as Ideology
Feuerbach's Bourgeois Atheism	p. 123
Feuerbach's Radical Atheism	p. 130
Marx's Radical Atheism	p. 134
Religion and the Christian State	p. 141
Religion and the Secular State	p. 147
Marxian Materialism	p. 154
Religion as Ideology	p. 159
Religion as Critique	p. 166
Techniques of Neutralization	p. 172
More Techniques of Neutralization	p. 180
One Last Technique of Neutralization	p. 186
Mixing Religion and Politics	p. 193
Who Is the God of the Bible? Ask Pharaoh!	p. 199
Third Commandment Idolatry	p. 205
A "Marxist" Sermon Against the Baalization of Yahweh	p. 210
Nietzsche and the Critique of Religion as Resentment
Squintingly Yours, Friedrich Nietzsche	p. 219
Distinctively Yours, Friedrich Nietzsche	p. 225
The Big Lie	p. 232
Jews and Priests	p. 238
Glittering Vices	p. 246
Justice and the Fascists	p. 252
Pity and the Pharisees	p. 259
Jesus and the Pharisees I: The Sinners	p. 265
Jesus and the Pharisees II: The Sabbath	p. 275
In Conclusion: The Dangers of Suspicion	p. 283
Index	p. 291
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