Our friends and editors of The Other Journal, Chris Keller and Jon Stanley (both MHGS alumni), were recently interviewed by Church and Postmodern Culture about their new book, “God is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself.” When asked about how Seattle’s context has impacted the conversation on the “new atheism,” Chris responded:

The obvious reason for putting together a book is that there has just been so much new atheism literature over the past few years.  But then—and this ties into our particularity—everyone who is a Christian in this city is living as a Christian in the midst of a general population that has Bill Maher sensibilities, and thinks Christian faith is simply ‘Religulous’.  Does being a person of faith essentially mean living a life that is running blind on the wheels of faith?  That’s what pisses Maher off so much. But here’s the catch: that’s what pisses our readership off as well—the anti-intellectualism that grows like a fungus in some Christian cultures.  As for Christian responses, we see folks all the time “respond” to atheism with all sorts of tactics like anger, sarcasm, vitriol; the people who do it best in my opinion realize there is an art form and humility to being a person of faith and that we must be in dialogue with people different than ourselves. As Brian McLaren says in his endorsement, ‘atheism isn’t just something to oppose or refute—it also can be a mirror, with much to teach us about ourselves and our distorted and unworthy ideas about God and religion.’ So when we were soliciting content a few years ago for this issue I really felt the pressing need to think about what an authentic response to the new atheism might look like, one that might be able to have some traction in a city like Seattle.  I don’t really see the new atheism as a threat to the Christian faith, as such, but it certainly does pose a serious (and much needed) threat to certain iterations of the Christian faith.  I don’t feel, most days, offended or threatened by the new atheism, but this is a much more interesting and culturally significant conversation to have than, say, tithing or porn.

Check out the whole interview, it’s a great read. PS. You should already be reading The Other Journal. It’s a great collection of writings on theology and culture.