How to be a Puritan Atheist

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "How to be a Puritan Atheist" was published on March 14, 2019 and runs 47 minutes.

March 14, 2019 ·47m · Gresham College Lectures

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Summary

Early 'atheism' did not always mean angry rejection of religion. The most earnest believers were often ones who wrestled most seriously with doubts. This lecture will look at how and why Christians in the seventeenth century first began seriously to wrestle with unbelief, whether troubled by feelings that God was absent, worries about religious variety or fear of damnation. What made these doubts so powerful was that their roots were not philosophical, but emotional. A lecture by Alec Ryri...

Episode Description

Early 'atheism' did not always mean angry rejection of religion. The most earnest believers were often ones who wrestled most seriously with doubts.

This lecture will look at how and why Christians in the seventeenth century first began seriously to wrestle with unbelief, whether troubled by feelings that God was absent, worries about religious variety or fear of damnation. What made these doubts so powerful was that their roots were not philosophical, but emotional.

A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 14 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/puritan-atheist

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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