Includes bibliographical references (pages 140-163) and indexes.

The new science and the ancient faith : three settlements at the dawn of modernity -- A dialectical pattern in the emergence of atheism -- Thomas Aquinas and the rise of modern atheism -- God as the anti-human -- The radical finitude of religious ideas : atheism and contemplation --The negation of atheism.

Reflecting on the development of atheism from the beginnings of modernity to the present day, the author suggests that atheism originated in the denial that the various forms of interpersonal religious experience possess any cognitive cogency.