Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media to ‘Digital Atheism’
London: UCL Press (2022), xix, 359 pp.
Contains figures, index
ISBN 978-1-80008-345-5 (pbk); 978-1-80008-344-8 (pdf)
CC BY-NC
"Global Sceptical Publics is the first major study of the significance of different media for the (re)production of non-religious publics and publicity. While much work has documented how religious subjectivities are shaped by media, until now the crucial role of diverse media for producing and participating in religion-sceptical publics and debates has remained under-researched. With some chapters focusing on locations hitherto barely considered by scholarship on non-religion, the book places in comparative perspective how atheists, secularists and humanists engage with media – as means of communication and forming non-religious publics, but also on occasion as something to be resisted. Its conceptually rich interdisciplinary chapters thereby contribute important new insights to the growing field of non-religion studies and to scholarship on media and materiality more generally." (uclpress.co.uk)
Introduction: non-religion, atheism and sceptical publicity / Jacob Copeman and Mascha Schulz, 1
PART I. AESTHETICS AND VISUAL CULTURE OF NON-RELIGION
1 Rationalist camera: non-religious techniques of vision in India / Jacob Copeman and John Hagström, 39
2 Performing the secular: street theatre and songs as 'secular media' in Bangladesh and West Bengal / James Bradbury and Mascha Schulz, 71
3 'There is no god, Summer': a critical evaluation of Rick and Morty's approach to atheism and nihilism / Frank Bosman, 97
4 Aesthetics of the secular / Stefan Binder, 127
5 Gender, affect and atheism in Arabic media / Natalie Khazaal, 144
PART II. MEDIATED SCEPTICISM: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY TRAJECTORIES
6 'Apostates': a new secularising public in the United Kingdom / John Hagstrom, 173
7 Satan, sex and an Islamist zombie apocalypse: religion-sceptical publicity and blasphemy in Turkish cartoons and comic books / Pierre Hecker, 193
8 From campaign and dispute to 'public service broad/narrowcasting': secularist and atheist media strategies in Britain and America - a contextual history / David Nash, 219
PART III. ATHEISM AND SCEPTICISM IN A DIGITAL AGE
9 Intimate deconversions: digital atheist counterpublics on Reddit / Eric Chalfant, 244
10 Pumpkins at the centre of Mars and circlejerks: do atheists find community online? / Evelina Lundmark, 269
11 From 'talking among' to 'talking back'? Online voices of young Moroccan non-believers / Lena Richter, 289
12 Ungodly visuals: confrontations, religion and affect in the everyday lives of atheists in India / Neelabh Gupta, 309
Afterword: paradox laxity and unwordy indifference: non-religious figurations beyond emancipatory narratives and declamatory genres / Johannes Quack, 339
PART I. AESTHETICS AND VISUAL CULTURE OF NON-RELIGION
1 Rationalist camera: non-religious techniques of vision in India / Jacob Copeman and John Hagström, 39
2 Performing the secular: street theatre and songs as 'secular media' in Bangladesh and West Bengal / James Bradbury and Mascha Schulz, 71
3 'There is no god, Summer': a critical evaluation of Rick and Morty's approach to atheism and nihilism / Frank Bosman, 97
4 Aesthetics of the secular / Stefan Binder, 127
5 Gender, affect and atheism in Arabic media / Natalie Khazaal, 144
PART II. MEDIATED SCEPTICISM: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY TRAJECTORIES
6 'Apostates': a new secularising public in the United Kingdom / John Hagstrom, 173
7 Satan, sex and an Islamist zombie apocalypse: religion-sceptical publicity and blasphemy in Turkish cartoons and comic books / Pierre Hecker, 193
8 From campaign and dispute to 'public service broad/narrowcasting': secularist and atheist media strategies in Britain and America - a contextual history / David Nash, 219
PART III. ATHEISM AND SCEPTICISM IN A DIGITAL AGE
9 Intimate deconversions: digital atheist counterpublics on Reddit / Eric Chalfant, 244
10 Pumpkins at the centre of Mars and circlejerks: do atheists find community online? / Evelina Lundmark, 269
11 From 'talking among' to 'talking back'? Online voices of young Moroccan non-believers / Lena Richter, 289
12 Ungodly visuals: confrontations, religion and affect in the everyday lives of atheists in India / Neelabh Gupta, 309
Afterword: paradox laxity and unwordy indifference: non-religious figurations beyond emancipatory narratives and declamatory genres / Johannes Quack, 339
