Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daoism to Spinoza and Beyond

A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism. Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the “turn to religion”) or less religion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, even religious rejection of God: an affirmative atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it—a mystical atheism. In the legacies of Daoism and Buddhism as well as Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bataille, Ziporyn discovers a critique of theism that develops into a new, positive sensibility—at once deeply atheist and richly religious. Experiments in Mystical Atheism argues that these “godless epiphanies” hold the key to renewing philosophy today.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction The Weird Idea God as Default? Preaching to the Choir Let’s Assume a Brain Tumor: Futile Attacks on Monotheistic Faith Atheism Postmonotheist and Nonmonotheist: Against and after Nancy Religious Innovation as Backfiring Detheology Atheism as Uberpiety Part I: The Sleeping Island Chapter 1: Purposivity and Consciousness Noûs as Arché: Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Design versus Infinity: Two Rival Explanations for the Intricacy of Existence Intelligible Good/s versus Infinite W/hole/s in Plato’s Symposium The Hypertrophy of Purposive Consciousness: Animism Gone Wild Chapter 2: Purposivity and Dichotomy The Purpose-Driven Life? No Thanks! The Great Asymmetry: Purpose Obstructs Purposelessness, but Purposelessness Enables Purposes The Great Asymmetry Redux, Mutatis Mutandis: Chaos as Enabler and Encompasser of Order Daodejing: The Discovery of the Opposite of God The Moral Hazard of Moral Ideals Chapter 3: Purposivity and Personhood What Is a “Person”? Control versus Necessity and the Dichotomization of Oneness and Difference Rethinking Personhood as Nonultimate Love contra the Ultimacy of Personhood God beyond Personhood? No, Not Really Chapter 4: Purposivity and Finitude Tool, Control, Purpose, Thinghood: Bataille on God as Failed Religion Schopenhauer on the Suspension of the Principle of Sufficient Reason: How the Halfway Measure of “God” Obstructs the Absolute (or, Three out of Four Ain’t Bad) Toward the Synonymity of Conditionality and Unconditionality: Two Alternate Models of Omnipresence, Theistic and Atheistic Recap and Gameplan Part II: Varieties of Atheist Beatitude Chapter 5: Spinoza, or Intoxicating Sobriety The Theological Proof of God’s Nonexistence Spinoza in Twelve Steps The Nonthing, the Only Thing, Everywhere, Eternally Truth as Adequacy as Moretoitivity The Big Rethink: Body, Mind, Cause, and Purpose Not Merely Parts of the Whole: How the Temporary Finite Mode I Am Is Also Eternal and Infinite Finitude as the Intersection of Two Infinities Beatific Vision, Spinoza Style Spinoza and Schopenhauer on the Universal Will as Unreason, Reason, and Both Chapter 6: Nietzsche, or the Divinely Vicious Circle Why Nietzsche Thought So Highly of This Wacko Idea Proof in the Pudding The Same Life Again Makes No Difference If Truly the Same The Absolute Affirmation of Anything Is the Affirmation of Absolutely Everything Chapter 7: Bataille, or Fuckin’ Chaos Godlessness as Liberation from Both Spirit and Matter and Several Versions of What Remains Beyond Will to Power as Will to Control: Squandering through the Gordian Knot of Purpose The Practice of Joy before Death Conclusion: Meaningfulness Revisited: Styles of Suffering, Sublimity, and Beatific Vision, Theistic and Atheistic Acknowledgments Appendixes Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Brook Ziporyn is the Mircea Eliade Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He is the author and translator of many books, most recently Daodejing.

Review :
“Experiments in Mystical Atheism is a brilliant and challenging meditation on and critique of monotheism. In it, Ziporyn demonstrates how those of us without the ‘God gene’ need not suffer a lack of spiritual depth or meaning. This book is an impressive example of how Chinese dialogue with Western thought can contribute to a mature religious worldview.” “This provocative manifesto is written for the ‘mystically minded but God-intolerant.’ In abandoning the idea of a transcendent Person who provides our lives with purpose, Ziporyn articulates an ‘atheistic mysticism’ that reconciles the finite with the infinite and that promises to be as liberating as it is demanding.” “In his hair-raising and ambitious case against God, Ziporyn avoids tired atheist arguments. Instead, heart on his sleeve, he seeks to show that God, as a concept, is the antithesis of exuberant meaning, sublime experience, and expansive love. Thoreau once said that true philosophers had been replaced by professors of philosophy; Ziporyn is here to prove him wrong." “A rare foundational and beautiful book, Experiments in Mystical Atheism presents an alternative to the master narratives of sovereignty that still dominate contemporary thought. Rather than a crude rehash of ‘rational’ or moral argument, Ziporyn’s deep atheism builds on Daoism, Buddhism, Spinoza, and Nietzsche to unfold the utter contingency and purposelessness of existence.”