Viewpoint diversity is suddenly on everyone’s lips — yet few agree on what it really means. Is it about political balance? Free speech? Academic inclusion? Or something far more vital — the courage to engage across difference?In Viewpoint Diversity: What It Is, Why We Need It, and How to Get It, leading heterodox thinkers tackle one of the most urgent questions of our time: how to keep open inquiry and constructive disagreement alive amid rising conformity on both left and...

Exploring uncharted literary territory, Nothing Sacred: Outspoken Voices in Contemporary Fiction offers the reading public a compilation of spellbinding stories on topics as diverse as crumbling male privilege, moonshine whiskey brewing, language policing, immigrant experience, sexual transgression, and plain heresy.At a time when the American publishing industry increasingly perceives fiction lovers as rather delicate creatures—easily offended, allergic to ambiguity, afra...

While atheists such as Richard Dawkins have now become public figures, there is another and perhaps darker strain of religious rebellion that has remained out of sight--people who hate God. In this revealing book, Bernard Schweizer looks at men and women who do not question God's existence, but deny that He is merciful, competent, or good. Sifting through a wide range of literary and historical works, Schweizer finds that people hate God for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by soci...

This thought-provoking collection offers a multi-disciplinary approach on the subject of humour, Muslims, and Islam.Beginning with theoretical perspectives and scriptural guidance on permissible and restricted humour, the volume presents a variety of case studies about Muslim comedic practices in various cultural, political, and religious contexts.This unprecedented scholarship sheds new light on common misconceptions about humour and laughter in Islam and deftly tackles se...

In the 1930s, the discourse of travel furthered widely divergent and conflicting ideologies—socialist, conservative, male chauvinist, and feminist—and the major travel writers of the time revealed as much in their texts. Evelyn Waugh was a declared conservative and fascist sympathizer; George Orwell was a dedicated socialist; Graham Greene wavered between his bourgeois instincts and his liberal left-wing sympathies; and Rebecca West maintained strong feminist and liberationist convictions....

While atheists such as Richard Dawkins have now become public figures, there is another and perhaps darker strain of religious rebellion that has remained out of sight--people who hate God. In this revealing book, Bernard Schweizer looks at men and women who do not question God's existence, but deny that He is merciful, competent, or good. Sifting through a wide range of literary and historical works, Schweizer finds that people hate God for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by soci...

This book traces the development of religious comedy and leverages that history to justify today’s uses of religious humor in all of its manifestations, including irreverent jokes. It argues that regulating humor is futile and counterproductive, illustrating this point with a host of comedic examples. Humor is a powerful rhetorical tool for those who advocate and for those who satirize religious ideals.The book presents a compelling argument about the centrality of humor to the sto...

Epic has long been regarded as the exclusive domain of the male literary genius and as an incarnation of patriarchal values. This provocative collection of essays challenges such a hegemonic stereotype by demonstrating the ways in which women writers have successfully adapted the masculine epic tradition to suit their own aesthetic needs and to express their own heroic literary, social, and historical visions. Bringing the female epic out of the shadows, the contributors rethink generic bo...

Do religions have an inherent right to be respected? Is atheism itself a form of religion, and can there be such a thing as a 'fundamentalist atheist'? Are we witnessing a global revival in religious zeal, or do the signs point instead to religion's ultimate decline?In a series of bold, unsparing polemics, A.C. Grayling tackles these questions head on, exposing the dangerous unreason he sees at the heart of religious faith and highlighting the urgent need we have to reject it in all...

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Refer...

*A genre-defining—*and redefining—collection of the boldest, most rebellious, and most prescient speculative fiction, featuring stories from all over the globe.“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”Almost forty years ago, William Gibson wrote the line that began *Neuromancer—*and a movement that would change the face of science fiction.Award-winning anthologist Jared Shurin brings together over a hund...

“A civil but honest dialogue…As illuminating as it is fascinating.”—Ayaan Hirsi AliIs Islam a religion of peace or war? Is it amenable to reform? Why do so many Muslims seem to be drawn to extremism? And what do words like jihadism and fundamentalism really mean? In a world riven by misunderstanding and violence, Sam Harris—a famous atheist—and Maajid Nawaz—a former radical—demonstrate how two people with very different religious views can ...