Atheism /

In the introduction and translator's note for this translation of Atheism--which Kojève (1902--86) wrote in 1931 but never published--Love (German and Russian, Clemson Univ.) provides terms and distinctions that will help with the experience of reading the text. Reading the text, however, is its own slow-moving treat. The abstraction of the argument will not stymie those familiar with Kojève, Hegel, et al. The core of the argument--Kojève divides atheists and nonatheists (eventually "theists") on the basis of their experience of finitude and/or the question of the givenness of infinitude--provides a mode of analyzing the divide between the two encounters from a refreshing viewpoint, one still innovative in contemporary discussions. Not only does this help Kojève ask the question of an atheist religion, but it also allows him to distinguish the atheism/theism debate from the secular/religious debate with which it is so often confused. The experience of reading the book can be compared to the experience of reading Jean-Luc Nancy's Dis-Enclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity (Eng. tr., 2008): the abstractions require no former knowledge. The book is dense and very rewarding for those who approach it patiently. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Daniel R. Boscaljon, independent scholar