Mass Observers Making Meaning
Religion, Spirituality and Atheism in Late 20th-Century Britain
Seiten
2023
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-27453-2 (ISBN)
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-27453-2 (ISBN)
This book uses Mass Observation writings to explore the astonishing range of beliefs about life’s larger questions held by British people in the late 20th century.
What do people believe about death and the afterlife? How do they negotiate the relationship between science and religion? How do they understand apparently paranormal events? What do they make of sensations of awe, wonder or exceptional moments of sudden enlightenment?
The volunteer mass observers responded to such questions with a freshness, openness and honesty which compels attention. Using this rich material, Mass Observers Making Meaning captures the extraordinarily diverse landscape of belief and disbelief to be found in Britain in the late 20th-century, at a time when Christianity was in steep decline, alternative spiritualities were flourishing and atheism was growing. Divided as they were about the ultimate nature of reality, the mass observers were united in their readiness to puzzle about life’s larger questions. Listening empathetically to their accounts, James Hinton – himself a convinced atheist – seeks to bring divergent ways of finding meaning in human life into dialogue with one another, and argues that we can move beyond the cacophony of conflicting beliefs to an understanding of our common need and ability to seek meaning in our lives.
What do people believe about death and the afterlife? How do they negotiate the relationship between science and religion? How do they understand apparently paranormal events? What do they make of sensations of awe, wonder or exceptional moments of sudden enlightenment?
The volunteer mass observers responded to such questions with a freshness, openness and honesty which compels attention. Using this rich material, Mass Observers Making Meaning captures the extraordinarily diverse landscape of belief and disbelief to be found in Britain in the late 20th-century, at a time when Christianity was in steep decline, alternative spiritualities were flourishing and atheism was growing. Divided as they were about the ultimate nature of reality, the mass observers were united in their readiness to puzzle about life’s larger questions. Listening empathetically to their accounts, James Hinton – himself a convinced atheist – seeks to bring divergent ways of finding meaning in human life into dialogue with one another, and argues that we can move beyond the cacophony of conflicting beliefs to an understanding of our common need and ability to seek meaning in our lives.
James Hinton is Emeritus Professor of History at University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of several books, including The First Shop Stewards’ Movement (1974), Nine Wartime Lives: Mass-Observation and the Making of the Modern Self (2010) and The Mass Observers: A History, 1937–1949 (2013).
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: Puzzled People?
2. Belief and Disbelief
3. Death and Afterwards
4. Religion and Science
5. Uses of the Paranormal
6. Moments of our Time
7. A Pagan Priestess
8. Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 05.09.2023 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | The Mass-Observation Critical Series |
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 150 x 232 mm |
| Gewicht | 320 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-350-27453-4 / 1350274534 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-350-27453-2 / 9781350274532 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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