Book discussion group for Lent

RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS: A non-believer’s guide to the uses of religion, by Alain de Botton (Penguin 2013)

All of us, whether religious, agnostic or atheist, are searching for meaning. In this wise and life-affirming book, non-believer Alain de Botton both rejects the supernatural claims of the major religions and points out just how many good ideas they sometimes have about how we should live. And he suggests that non-believers can learn and steal from them.

Picking and choosing from the thousands of years of advice assembled by the world’s great religions, Alain de Botton presents a range of fascinating ideas and practical insights on art, community, love, friendship, work, life and death. He shows how they can be of use to us all, irrespective of whether we do or don’t believe.

• ‘A serious and optimistic set of practical ideas that could improve and alter the way we live’ (The Times)
• ‘A beautiful, inspiring book… offering a glimpse of a more enlightened path’ (Sunday Telegraph)
• ‘Smart, stimulating, sensitive. A timely and perceptive appreciation of how much wisdom is embodied in religious traditions and how we godless moderns might learn from it’ (Financial Times)
• ‘There isn’t a page in this book that doesn’t contain a striking idea or a stimulating parallel’ (Mail on Sunday)

Available new at around £10; or second hand (e.g. on Amazon) from about £3.

We’ll read and discuss two chapters a week, meeting over five weeks, on Thursdays at 2pm at the Cross Keys Pub, beginning on Thursday 22nd Feb. All welcome. For more details or if you have difficulty getting hold of a copy, talk to the Vicar.

Thursday 22nd Feb:  Wisdom without Doctrine & Community (chapters 1 & 2)

Thursday 29th Feb:  Kindness & Education (chapters 3 & 4)

Thursday 7th March:  Tenderness & Pessimism (chapters 5 & 6)

Thursday 14th March:  Perspective & Art (chapters 7 & 8)

Thursday 21st March:  Architecture & Institutions (chapters 9 & 10)