Reviews for Beyond Idols: The Shape of a Secular Society

The average rating for Beyond Idols: The Shape of a Secular Society based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-21 00:00:00 James Fletcher An interesting contribution to the discussion surrounding the concept of evil, from a thinker that I know primarily as the definitive contributor to the "ethics of care", and as a writer on the reform of education. I will certainly be trying to incorporate some of the insights in this work into my own current project, but I do not know that I am wholly persuaded by the thesis, or that I believe that evil can be summed up in the trinity of pain, separation, and helplessness. I cannot put my finger on exactly where I started to disagree, but thinking back on reading it, my suspicion is that I do not feel that this captured the sense that Atwood conveys, when quoting Yeats, of the "foul rag and bone shop of the heart". And perhaps also that she passed over the case made by the pessimists rather too quickly. I would warn readers that, to understand maybe the first quarter of the book, some knowledge of theology is highly recommended, and contemporary (or twentieth century) theologians such as Rosemary Radford Reuther, Mary Daly, Shulamith Firestone, and Paul Tillich all feature regularly.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-08-25 00:00:00 Barry Sheppard I have to think of Chesterton as happy nitroglycerin. This book sends your head up into the clouds while driving your feet deep into the earth. It spins you dizzier than you've ever been, yet makes you walk straighter than you've ever walked. Read this first in 2007, again in 2011.