Named an Outstanding Academic Title of the Year for 2013 by Choice.The self has a history. In the West, the idea of the soul entered Christianity with the Church Fathers, notably Augustine. During the Renaissance the idea of the individual attained preeminence, as in the works of Montaigne. In the 17th century, philosophers such as Descartes formulated notions of self-hood that did not require a divine foundation; in the next century, Hume grew skeptical of the self's very...

Spirituality without God is the first global survey of “godless” spirituality. Long before “spiritual but not religious” became the catchphrase of the day, there were religious and spiritual traditions in India, China, and the West that denied the existence of God.Peter Heehs begins by looking at godless traditions in the ancient world. Indian religions such as Jainism and Buddhism showed the way to liberation through individual effort. In China, Confucians and Daoists tau...