Religion for Atheists
Reviews
Rowland Manthorpe in the Telegraph
3 February 2012
This book should carry a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-style warning: DON’T PANIC. Don’t panic, this is not another contribution to the “debate” about God, the Eton wall game of contemporary discourse, where no one can see the ball, no one knows what the rules are, and there hasn’t been a goal in more than 100 years. Read more
Charles Moore in the Telegraph
3 February 2012
“The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of a religion,” say Alain de Botton in the first sentence of this book, “is whether or not it is true.” Many believers will find this an unpromising start, but de Botton is not writing for them. Read more
Jeanette Winterson in the Times
4 February 2012
Alain de Botton is a believer — but not in God. Religion for Atheists begins and ends with the idea that secular society needs its own institutions that give space and support to our inner life. Read more
Stephen Cave in the Financial Times
20 January 2012
When the revolutionaries of France began building their new order, they knew it would have to include religion. Even the atheists among them saw that the people needed comforting rituals and sanctioned celebrations to usher them through life. Read more
Richard Holloway in Literary Review
March 2012
There are two schools of interpretation in Christian theology that appear to be in direct contradiction to each other but are, in fact, compatible. There is the conservative or ‘realist’ account of faith, which is a high-octane supernaturalism. Read more
A N Wilson in Spectator
21 January 2012
Over 125 of the 320 pages in this book are either blank, or taken up with black-and-white illustrations, of subjects as various as Madonna and her former husband Guy Ritchie, slates arranged by Richard Long, Buddhist truth-seekers going for a walk in a wood, and a little boy having his Bar Mitzvah in a New York restaurant. Read more