Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Battling the Gods : Atheism in the Ancient World - Tim Whitmarsh

Battling the Gods

Atheism in the Ancient World

By: Tim Whitmarsh

Paperback | 5 January 2017

At a Glance

Paperback


$33.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.44 with

 or 

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

A superb narrative of a thousand years of struggle for atheism, rational inquiry and intellectual freedom. Shortlisted for the 2016 Runciman Award.

How new is atheism?

In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean to recover the stories of those who first refused the divinities.

Long before the Enlightenment sowed the seeds of disbelief in a deeply Christian Europe, atheism was a matter of serious public debate in the Greek world. But history is written by those who prevail, and the Age of Faith mostly suppressed the lively free-thinking voices of antiquity.

Tim Whitmarsh brings to life the fascinating ideas of Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; and Epicurus and his followers. He shows how the early Christians came to define themselves against atheism, and so suppress the philosophy of disbelief.

Battling the Gods is the first book on the origins of the secular values at the heart of the modern state. Authoritative and bold, provocative and humane, it reveals how atheism and doubt, far from being modern phenomena, have intrigued the human imagination for thousands of years.

About the Author

Tim Whitmarsh is the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University. A well-known specialist in the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome, he has appeared on BBC radio and TV, and written for the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and Literary Review.

More in Ancient History to the Year 500

Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World - Philip Matyszak

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
A Short History of Ancient Rome - Pascal Hughes

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
Plebs Romana : People, Power and Politics in Ancient Rome - Peter Jones
Reading Greek : Text and Vocabulary : 2nd Edition - Joint Association of Classical Teachers

RRP $57.95

$49.75

14%
OFF
Goliath's Curse : The History and Future of Societal Collapse - Luke Kemp
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
1177 B.C. : The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated - Eric H. Cline
Discourses and Selected Writings : Penguin Classics - Epictetus
Roman Infantry Helmets : Elite - M.C. Bishop

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
The Histories : Penguin Classics - Herodotus

RRP $24.99

$19.99

20%
OFF
Familia Romana : Lingua Latina - Hans H. rberg

RRP $40.00

$35.99

10%
OFF
Urbanism and Empire in Roman Sicily - Laura Pfuntner

RRP $92.99

$85.75