Becoming Atheist: Humanism and the Secular West by Callum G. Brown. Bloomsbury, London 2017. Pbk. 231 pages. £21.68.
In a letter from Don Cupitt that sits in my study, Don laments the lost opportunity of a ‘critical orthodoxy’ that seemed possible in the 1960s. It is from the period since the 1960s that Glasgow University’s Callum Brown, Professor of Modern European History, wrote Becoming Atheist exploring the decline in organised religion. This readable little book sees him continue his research into what he describes as the ‘secularisation of Britain’. Becoming Atheist follows through oral history and narratives, sometimes painfully, how 85 individuals have moved away from the traditional Christian faith to a position of secularisation or humanism. They have become, or are on the way to becoming, ‘atheist’… or are they? This book is the last in a trilogy. It looks at how society has ‘secularised itself’ from the 1960s on, the sexual revolution and how family formations have all been transformed by the one-by-one process of the individual loss of faith.
Callum Brown takes a step away from the methodology previously used to measure the decline of religion – namely, an examination of church membership and census information. He points out that during the last census, ‘Atheist’ actually came second behind ‘Agnostic’ and just in front of ‘Humanist’. By focussing upon oral history, once the favourite of the social sciences but now out of favour, this book recognises that the empirical-historical life-stories can offer us a way of examination. But the author recognises that the legitimacy of the book rests on the respondent’s judgement ‘upon their own selves’.
Whilst reading the book, it becomes quickly obvious that it’s making no moral evaluation about the decline of religion. Rather it examines atheism in and of itself, and above all this book is about a changing culture through personal narrative.
What I did find interesting but not surprising, was the difference in the situation in Europe from that of the United States. In Europe, the loss was far more about the loss of a ‘cultural artefact’, whereas in the US the decline of religion was much more of a personal loss of faith.
There is no doubt that there is a need for fresh scholarly research into the historical trend that is currently taking place. This book does this. However, I have more questions than criticisms because how can one criticise someone else’s faith journey?
I do not like the title of the book and found myself feeling self-conscious reading it in public, as the title reads like some self-help manual, which the book certainly is not. It’s an examination of a subjective response to what’s happening in Western society and I welcome the insights and found those who contributed honest and open about their journey. But it’s still a journey, and to this end I felt myself asking: ‘Has your journey now ended?’ Surely not. Surely the faith journey is contingent?
Moreover, I’m never quite sure what describing oneself as atheist actually means. In the book I found the term was used by participants interchangeably with secularism and humanism and whilst they may dovetail, the etymologies of the words are different. Certainly within the SOFN any loss of the metaphysical is for many a thoughtful repudiation of a theological position and this book recognises that is a position for some, but the word ‘non-realism’ gets not a mention. For the many, however, Callum Brown suggests the decline of religion is simply just a ‘forgetting of God’, and I found this a challenge that maybe requires further thought.
It’s within this category that I find a weakness in the book, as a ‘forgetting of God’ is not a rejection of God or what the word God means. The loss of the traditional Christian faith may mean one responds to a new situation – a ‘belief’ in no creed and no liturgy on which to rest one’s head. If so, then as I write, just a few weeks from the ‘Tenebrae’, the theological step into the unknown, a step into the dark beyond the ‘knowing’, beyond our own knowing, could be welcomed as a genuine theological position that can be held with integrity and not considered a default position this book would name ‘atheism’.
Simon Mapp is funeral chaplain for the Unitarian Great Meeting, Hinckley, and a meditation student at Karma Ling, Birmingham. He is Vice-Chair of SOF Board of Trustees.