To browse Academia. I am uploading Champions of the Church, by D. Bennett, , this is a collection of short Biographies of many of the Leaders and Heroes of Christianity. This copy has hyperlinks to the various articles from the Contents, this makes the large, page, book easy to manage. The nonsense world of religion has been totally disproved by the advance of science and human knowledge; that we have been thrust back into the world of superstitious ignorance proves the power of unscrupulous propaganda, and the total failure of the Scholars of Academia to protect the accumulated knowledge of humankind.
As the present volume demonstrates, atheism has a long history that spans multiple countries and eras, but even more than that, the history of atheism itself has a history. The goal of this chapter is to offer a look at how historians and other scholars over time have tried to tell the story of atheism. Because of space limitations, this cannot approach a comprehensive study of works on the history of atheism.
Rather I focus specifically on those works which discuss the history of atheism on a large scale, across many centuries and multiple countries. The chapter highlights some of the key issues in writing the history of atheism, and the various ways these might be addressed.
To draw out these issues, I have divided histories of atheism into two main schools: those writing from an atheist or secular perspective and those writing from a Christian or theological perspective. It is important to note that I am constructing this division for purposes of analysis and authors might not necessarily position themselves as writing from a particular "school.
It should also be noted that works on either side need not be seen as more or less scholarly than the other. With these caveats in mind, I believe dividing the chapter in this way helps to bring to the fore some of the major questions and disagreements about the history of atheism.
