Something Old, Something New

Something Old, Something New: Contemporary Entanglements of Religion and Secularity offers a fresh perspective on debates surrounding religious and secular thinking. In each chapter, Wayne Glausser focuses on a topic of contemporary relevance in which something old (the sacrament of extreme unction, Greek rhetorical tropes, scholastic theology) entangles with something new (psilocybin therapy for the dying, the New Atheism, cognitive science). Glausser uses
the term "entanglement" to describe his distinctive approach to the relationship between religion and secularity. The concept of entanglement refers to a contentious but oddly intimate relationship in which
secular ideas compete with corresponding religious convictions, but neither side wins by displacing the other. As traditional religious knowledge and values come into conflict with their secular counterparts, the old ideas undergo stress and adaptation, but the influence works in both directions. Whether they do so consciously or unconsciously, entangled secularists engage with and sometimes borrow from older paradigms they believe they have surpassed. Something Old, Something New
takes an unusual approach to this popular debate, and offers a new perspective in the conversation between believers and secularists. This is a book that theists, atheists, agnostics, and everyone still searching
for the right label will find respectful but provocative.