About the Author
Jennifer Michael Hecht is a historian of science and culture and a poet. She has written seven books, including the best-selling Doubt: A History, the story of unbelief across the world.
Image credit: Jean Jenesque (Wikipedia)
Works by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Associated Works
Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things (2012) — Contributor — 63 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hecht, Jennifer Michael
- Birthdate
- 1965-11-23
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Adelphi University (BA)
Columbia University (Ph.D|1995) - Occupations
- philosopher
poet
professor
historian
lecturer - Organizations
- The New School
Nassau Community College - Short biography
- Jennifer Michael Hecht holds a Ph.D. in the history of science/European cultural history from Columbia University and has taught in the MFA program at Columbia University and the New School in New York City. She has published in many peer-reviewed journals, including The Journal of the History of Ideas and The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. She gives lectures at universities isuch as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Cal Tech, as well as at The Zen Mountain Monastery, Temple Israel, St. Bart’s Episcopal Church, and other institutions. She's been featured on many radio programs, including On Being with Krista Tippet, the Leonard Lopate Show, the BBC, Talk of the Nation, and Brian Lehrer, and on television, including Hardball on MSNBC, the Discovery Channel, and The Morning Show. In 2010, she served as one of the five nonfiction judges for the National Book Award. She is a member of the New York Institute for the Humanities. Her 2003 book Doubt: A History, was a bestseller. Subsequent books include The Happiness Myth (2007) and Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It (2013).
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Glen Cove, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Glen Cove, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Glen Cove, New York, USA
Members
Reviews
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
This book is exactly what it says it is -- a history of doubt, where "history" means "chronicle" and "doubt" means doubt about the existence of God, or the gods. Hecht does little extended reflection on the very concept of doubt or even its role vis a vis faith. Rather she gives a fast-paced history of "doubters", from the pre-Socratics to Salman Rushdie and other contemporary questioners of religious belief. Along the way, we get a view of the faces of doubt, from avid atheists like show more Nietzsche, to questioners like the author of Job, and ambiguous thinkers like Einstein. Hecht is especially good at uncovering doubters during the Middle Ages, whereas popular conceptions and academic studies reject even the possibility of doubt of God's existence during those times.
Hecht doesn't limit herself to western thought or Christian doubt. She addresses Asian, non-theistic beliefs, such as Buddhism, as well as doubters within the history of Islam.
But what stands out to me is the impression that the vitality of faith depends on doubt. Without the challenge, and even the loss of faith, faith is lifeless dogma; with the challenge, it is a tension, an active faith sustained against a tide. Both individuals and communities seem to need doubt in order for belief to play an active, defining role in day to day life, for better or worse.
For example, Hecht tells of the story of Job, both as written in the Bible and as told prior to and outside the Bible. It can be told as either the story of how Job's faith persisted undiminished throughout his trials, or it can be told as the rebirth of Job's faith after his despair-ridden rejection of God. The latter seems to me to make Job's faith even stronger for having been subjected to an ultimate test of rejection. It is the internal battle for and against in which faith seems to live most vitally.
i do wish that Hecht had taken the time to draw back from the history of doubt to extract lessons on the nature of faith and its challenges. But that's not the job she set for herself, so I can't say that that is a fault of the book. Her job was to chronicle the persistent history of religious doubt even in the most apparently devout times and places, within the Catholic church, within medieval Islam, within the polytheism of ancient Greece, . . . . And she does it in a style that resists stuffiness, relying on her writing skills not only as an academic historian but as a poet.
I don't keep every book I read, but I'll keep this one. I know that I will be reminded of some passage I will want to re-read and re-understand. show less
Hecht doesn't limit herself to western thought or Christian doubt. She addresses Asian, non-theistic beliefs, such as Buddhism, as well as doubters within the history of Islam.
But what stands out to me is the impression that the vitality of faith depends on doubt. Without the challenge, and even the loss of faith, faith is lifeless dogma; with the challenge, it is a tension, an active faith sustained against a tide. Both individuals and communities seem to need doubt in order for belief to play an active, defining role in day to day life, for better or worse.
For example, Hecht tells of the story of Job, both as written in the Bible and as told prior to and outside the Bible. It can be told as either the story of how Job's faith persisted undiminished throughout his trials, or it can be told as the rebirth of Job's faith after his despair-ridden rejection of God. The latter seems to me to make Job's faith even stronger for having been subjected to an ultimate test of rejection. It is the internal battle for and against in which faith seems to live most vitally.
i do wish that Hecht had taken the time to draw back from the history of doubt to extract lessons on the nature of faith and its challenges. But that's not the job she set for herself, so I can't say that that is a fault of the book. Her job was to chronicle the persistent history of religious doubt even in the most apparently devout times and places, within the Catholic church, within medieval Islam, within the polytheism of ancient Greece, . . . . And she does it in a style that resists stuffiness, relying on her writing skills not only as an academic historian but as a poet.
I don't keep every book I read, but I'll keep this one. I know that I will be reminded of some passage I will want to re-read and re-understand. show less
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Jennifer Michael Hecht presents a comprehensive look at the world history of religious doubt, particularly doubt about the nature and existence of gods. Which, in a way, also makes it a history of religion and philosophy, from an enlightening alternate point of view. I found it thoroughly compelling, full of fascinating information, intelligent insights, and useful perspectives. As an ardent unbeliever myself, I also felt genuine delight at discovering so many thinkers, from so many show more different times, places, and traditions, whose words and ideas resonate so well with my own thoughts.
It's worth pointing out, though, that although the book is extremely positive about doubt, it is definitely not an anti-religious screed. It deals with doubt that exists within religious traditions as well as doubt that attacks them, and even includes atheistic religions, such as Theravada Buddhism, under its doubters' umbrella. And even as I've come away from my reading feeling a bit of Atheist Pride, I also feel I've gained a better understanding of, and even a greater sympathy for, many aspects of religion.
I'm giving this one the coveted five stars. I won't say that it's flawless, and it did take me a while to get through it, but, man, what a remarkable read! show less
It's worth pointing out, though, that although the book is extremely positive about doubt, it is definitely not an anti-religious screed. It deals with doubt that exists within religious traditions as well as doubt that attacks them, and even includes atheistic religions, such as Theravada Buddhism, under its doubters' umbrella. And even as I've come away from my reading feeling a bit of Atheist Pride, I also feel I've gained a better understanding of, and even a greater sympathy for, many aspects of religion.
I'm giving this one the coveted five stars. I won't say that it's flawless, and it did take me a while to get through it, but, man, what a remarkable read! show less
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
A marvelous, dense, but readable history of religious doubt, from the earliest writings to the 21st century. I've been working on this for about 10 months, carrying it around on my Kindle and inching along, giving me plenty of time to digest between readings of other books. It's well worth the effort and has a large bibliography I plan to use frequently. Covers Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim doubt, among others, with Buddhism, of course, beginning as a religion of show more non-theists. There's lengthy discussion of the various schools of doubt, as well as analysis of our America's Founding Fathers, many of whom, especially Jefferson, were doubters or downright non-believers and specifically worded the Bill of Rights to ensure that religion would never again intrude on our politics. If only.....
Given the current international situation, with fundamentalism as a core issue, I was delighted to find mention of the modern author Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym), an ex-Muslim who wrote "Why I Am Not a Muslim" and who castigates Western society for not subjecting Islam to the critical method, as Christianity and other religions have been, and instead being afraid to criticize it. Something to think about. show less
Given the current international situation, with fundamentalism as a core issue, I was delighted to find mention of the modern author Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym), an ex-Muslim who wrote "Why I Am Not a Muslim" and who castigates Western society for not subjecting Islam to the critical method, as Christianity and other religions have been, and instead being afraid to criticize it. Something to think about. show less
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Hecht's examination of how doubt has always lived alongside faith since the earliest times is a fascinating work of scholarship. She takes us from the beginnings of philosophy which grew alongside the earliest recorded organised religions, where the act of questioning and doubting was fundamental to the process of philosophy. This unfaith runs like a bright silver thread through history, although many times religion has sought to obscure the fact and expunge it from the records, or recast show more the proponents of doubt in a way that portrays them as faithful.
She takes us forward from the Greeks and through Rome, taking in the Jewish tradition - both ancient and medieval - to Gnosticism and throughout the growth of Christianity, branching on the way to bring in the beliefs of Asia and how they had approaches that differed but often embraced doubt far ore strongly than the tradition in the West.
She shows us how the explosion of unbelief that was the Enlightenment was built partly on this questioning, and the gradual acceptance that a lack of faith was not only correct and acceptable amongst the intellectual elite but also held no dangers for the masses. Finally, she shows how the meeting of Western Enlightenment and Eastern enlightenment in the 19th and 20th centuries brought yet more strength to those who doubt, and recaps how the great thinkers and writers who have pushed against or broken outside of the bounds of religion have built upon each other, and managed to find the kernels of wisdom in earlier thinkers time and again, despite the best efforts to obscure or marginalise those dangerous thought.
A wonderful book which has given me far too many new threads to chase down and consume. show less
She takes us forward from the Greeks and through Rome, taking in the Jewish tradition - both ancient and medieval - to Gnosticism and throughout the growth of Christianity, branching on the way to bring in the beliefs of Asia and how they had approaches that differed but often embraced doubt far ore strongly than the tradition in the West.
She shows us how the explosion of unbelief that was the Enlightenment was built partly on this questioning, and the gradual acceptance that a lack of faith was not only correct and acceptable amongst the intellectual elite but also held no dangers for the masses. Finally, she shows how the meeting of Western Enlightenment and Eastern enlightenment in the 19th and 20th centuries brought yet more strength to those who doubt, and recaps how the great thinkers and writers who have pushed against or broken outside of the bounds of religion have built upon each other, and managed to find the kernels of wisdom in earlier thinkers time and again, despite the best efforts to obscure or marginalise those dangerous thought.
A wonderful book which has given me far too many new threads to chase down and consume. show less
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