A Place for Religious Atheism in 21st Century Spirituality?

In revisiting William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, Charles Taylor points out that, in our post-Durkheimian world, individuals will make what they can of their religious experience. One of the consequences of these fractures, Taylor explains, is a rise in number of people calling themselves atheists, agnostics or non-religious. Furthermore, there seems to be a significant increase of individuals holding seemingly untenable religious positions, e.g. individuals combining elements of Christianity with certain aspects of Buddhism and so forth. One of those positions that might be considered as untenable is that of so-called religious atheism. The point of this chapter will be to show that religious atheism is not a contradictio in terminis and to indicate that there is room for and proof of spirituality and religiosity for atheists.