The New Heretics: Skepticism, Secularism, and Progressive Christianity

The New Heretics explores the development of progressive Christianity, a movement that believes Christianity must be updated for modern times and takes into consideration modern science, historical criticism, and liberal humanism. It focuses on testimonies of deconversion, collective reading practices, and the ways in which religious beliefs and practices are adapted to fit secular lives. The book introduces the concept of "lived secularity" to examine the ways in which religiosity often is entangled with and subsumed by secular identities. It also shows that progressive Christians understand themselves vis-à-vis a conservative or fundamentalist Christian "other" and that the act of questioning and rejecting God is framed as a moral activity.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 07 February 2023
Publisher: New York University Press

The development of progressive Christianity's engagement with modern science, historical criticism, and liberal humanism is explored in Rebekka King's book, The New Heretics. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in North America, King focuses on testimonies of deconversion, collective reading practices, and the ways in which religious beliefs and practices are adapted to fit secular lives. She introduces the concept of "lived secularity" as a category with which to examine the ways in which religiosity often is entangled with and subsumed by secular identities over and against religious ones. The book pays close attention to the ways that progressive Christians understand themselves vis-à-vis a conservative or fundamentalist Christian "other," providing context concerning the presumed divide between the religious right and the religious left. King shows that while it might be tempting to think of progressive Christians as atheists, there are religious and moral dimensions to their disbelief. For progressive Christians, the act of questioning and rejecting God—alongside other theological tenets—is framed as a moral activity. Ultimately, the book showcases the importance of progressive Christianity in today's world.

The development of progressive Christianity's engagement with modern science, historical criticism, and liberal humanism is explored in Rebekka King's book, The New Heretics. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in North America, King focuses on testimonies of deconversion, collective reading practices, and the ways in which religious beliefs and practices are adapted to fit secular lives. She introduces the concept of "lived secularity" as a category with which to examine the ways in which religiosity often is entangled with and subsumed by secular identities over and against religious ones. The book pays close attention to the ways that progressive Christians understand themselves vis-à-vis a conservative or fundamentalist Christian "other," providing context concerning the presumed divide between the religious right and the religious left. King shows that while it might be tempting to think of progressive Christians as atheists, there are religious and moral dimensions to their disbelief. For progressive Christians, the act of questioning and rejecting God—alongside other theological tenets—is framed as a moral activity. Ultimately, the book showcases the importance of progressive Christianity in today's world.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479836147