Editing Terry Eagleton (section)

===Dawkins, Hitchens and the New Atheism===
Eagleton has become a vocal critic of what has been called the [[New Atheism]]. In October 2006, he published a review of [[Richard Dawkins]]'s ''[[The God Delusion]]'' in the ''[[London Review of Books]]''. Eagleton begins by questioning Dawkins's methodology and understanding: "Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the ''Book of British Birds'', and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology." Eagleton further writes, "Nor does [Dawkins] understand that because God is [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] of us (which is another way of saying that he did not have to bring us about), he is free of any neurotic need for us and wants simply to be allowed to love us."<ref name="Terry Eagleton">{{Cite journal |title=Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching |last=Eagleton |first=Terry |journal=[[London Review of Books]] |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |volume=28 |issue=20 |date=19 October 2006 |access-date=26 November 2006}}</ref> He concludes by suggesting Dawkins has not been attacking organised faith so much as a sort of rhetorical [[straw man]]:<ref>{{cite journal |last=Eagleton |first=Terry |title=Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching |journal=London Review of Books |date=19 October 2006 |volume=28 |issue=20 |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |access-date=1 September 2013}}</ref>{{Blockquote|Apart from the occasional perfunctory gesture to 'sophisticated' religious believers, Dawkins tends to see religion and fundamentalist religion as one and the same. This is not only grotesquely false; it is also a device to outflank any more reflective kind of faith by implying that it belongs to the coterie and not to the mass. The huge numbers of believers who hold something like the theology I outlined above can thus be conveniently lumped with rednecks who murder abortionists and malign homosexuals.}}

====Terry and Gifford Lectures====
In April 2008 Eagleton delivered [[Yale University]]'s [[Terry Lectures]], with the title ''Faith and Fundamentalism: Is belief in Richard Dawkins necessary for salvation?'', constituting a continuation of the critique he had begun in ''The London Review of Books''. Introducing his first lecture with an admission of ignorance of both theology and science, Eagleton goes on to affirm: "All I can claim in this respect, alas, is that I think I may know just about enough theology to be able to spot when someone like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens&nbsp;– a couplet I shall henceforth reduce for convenience to the solitary signifier ''Ditchkins''&nbsp;– is talking out of the back of his neck."<ref>{{cite video |people=Terry Eagleton (lecturer) |date=1 April 2008 |title=Christianity Fair and Foul |url=http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/eagleton.html |format=rm |medium=Podcast |publisher=[[Yale University]] |access-date=4 August 2009 |time=6:23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806031121/http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/eagleton.html |archive-date=6 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Eagleton |first=Terry |title=Faith and Fundamentalism: Is Belief in Richard Dawkins Necessary for Salvation? |work=[[Dwight H. Terry Lectureship]] |publisher=[[Yale University]] |url=http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/eagleton.html |date=April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806031121/http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/eagleton.html |archive-date=6 August 2009}}</ref> An expanded version of these lectures was published in 2009 as ''Reason, Faith, and Revolution:  Reflections on the God Debate''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eagleton |first=Terry |title=Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate |location=New Haven/London |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-300-15179-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300151794}}</ref>