Culture and the Death of God

Eagleton investigates the contradictions, difficulties, and significance of the modern search for a replacement for God. Engaging with a wide range of ideas, issues, and thinkers from the Enlightenment to today, the author discusses the state of religion before and after 9/11, the ironies surrounding Western capitalism's part in spawning not only secularism but also fundamentalism, and the unsatisfactory surrogates for the Almighty invented in the post-Enlightenment era. Eagleton reflects on the unique capacities of religion, the possibilities of culture and art as modern paths to salvation, the so-called war on terror's impact on atheism, and a host of other topics of concern to those who envision a future in which just and compassionate communities thrive. --From publisher description.