Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Popular Culture

Description

Who are the "Nones"? What does humanism say about race, religion and popular culture? How do race, religion and popular culture inform and affect humanism? The demographics of the United States are changing, marked most profoundly by the religiously unaffiliated, or what we have to come to call the "Nones". Spread across generations in the United States, this group encompasses a wide range of philosophical and ideological perspectives, from some in line with various forms of theism to those who are atheistic, and all sorts of combinations in between. Similar changes to demographics are taking place in Europe and elsewhere. Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Popular Culture provides a much-needed humanities-based analysis and description of humanism in relation to these cultural markers. Whereas most existing analysis attempts to explain humanism through the natural and social sciences (the "what" of life), Anthony B. Pinn explores humanism in relation to "how" life is arranged, socialized, ritualized, and framed. This ground-breaking publication brings together old and new essays on a wide range of topics and themes, from the African-American experience, to the development of humanist churches, and the lyrics of Jay Z.

Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, USA. He is Founding Director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL), and Director of Research at the Institute for Humanist Studies, Washington DC, USA.

Thoughtful and timely, insightful and compelling, this collection of essays takes humanism in new and needed directions. To be warmly welcomed. -- Phil Zuckerman, Professor of Sociology and Secular Studies, Pitzer College, USA, and author of Living the Secular Life (2014) As humanism grows and develops, the evolving field of humanist studies needs to catch up with both its growing diversity and its intellectual rigor. Professor Pinn is in the vanguard of this endeavor and these essays are an essential contribution to this academic debate. -- Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, British Humanist Association, UK This is classic Tony Pinn, eloquently and effortlessly exploring religion as human meaning making through the prisms of race, religion, ritual and popular culture; criticizing the ways that theism has limited human flourishing and community; and encouraging secular and humanist thinkers to take up a more positive and constructive engagement with the religious, even with the Bible. Such a deeply moral, deeply positive humanism is exactly where we should be at this cultural and political moment, "somewhere," as he puts it, "between absurdity and happiness. -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion, Rice University, USA, and author of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion