Palgrave Macmillan US

Palgrave Macmillan US

English

"'Is there a rational center between uncompromising religious belief and arrogant, know-it-all disbelief?' Roy Saltman asks and answers the question. Saltman expends his greatest efforts subjecting Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris (the Trinity of New Atheists) to the same gimlet-eyed scrutiny with which they treat religion, but also mounts a spirited defense of religious belief and practice within the bounds of reason indeed, within the bounds of a life dedicated to science." - Alan T. Levenson, Schusterman/Josey Professor of Jewish Intellectual History, University of Oklahoma "Roy Saltman's Sacred Humanism Without Miracles: Responding to the New Atheists provides a welcome corrective to the rampant literalism within current religious debates, a literalism that is fully at odds with the way the majority of believers have lived and continue to live their faiths. Mr. Saltman's careful attention to the details and differences of the world's religious traditions gives him a far more solid standing than the facile rants of his opponents for excoriating the abuses of theocracy while simultaneously safeguarding the peaceful and intellectually open traditions of moderate religious belief." - William Egginton, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Chair, German and Romance Languages and Literatures, The Johns Hopkins University "In Sacred Humanism Without Miracles, Roy Saltman is trying to bring nonbelievers into the neighborhood of the sacred, with appreciation, but not excuses, for organized religion. This important task, rather than the carping of the New Atheists, holds the promise of healing America's culture war divisions and promoting international understanding." - Bruce Ledewitz, professor, Duquesne University