Updating Chris Stedman, because

 Material at top taken from a LONG blog post about Chris Stedman's "Faitheist" book, his marketing of it, and even more of himself, and how he was likely full of crap and marketing crap way back then, and still is today.

 

If you’re not familiar with that name, it appears to have been something  largely developed by Chris Stedman, now the recently published author of a book by that name, which is what this blog post is all about.

First, some personal identification by me.

Regular readers of this blog, or at least the part of it that deals with religion, philosophy and metaphysics, know that I normally don’t have a lot of use for the New Atheist, or Gnu Atheist, “movement.” I've written about my issues with Gnus on many occasions, most recently here. I consider them too confrontational, for one thing. I consider them too … fundamentalist, to be wry, secondly. Third, unlike them, I have no desire to “evangelize” the religious, let alone conduct an intellectual browbeating quasi-jihad.

A brief 2017 update from the original: Stedman is no longer doing the secularist chaplaincy work at Harvard, per his Twitter. To complete the rebranding cycle, this fall, he'll be ....

TEACHING AT AUGSBURG!

So, OK, he won't be a Buddhist in two years. He'll be an ELCA Lutheran.

And now, the new. Looking at this 20 months after my last comment at my original post? First, I'm wondering if Chris' dad was an abuser, and that's why he's largely written out of Chris' story. Would explain a LOT on Chris' psychology.

 

Second, I looked up Chris' new book that came out last year. Teaching at Augsburg, and thus, even within the liberal wing of Lutheranism and Minnesota nice, almost certainly NOT an atheist, per what I ventured above. The "about" on his own website also doesn't mention the Big A. He doesn't identify as such on the bio for his new book at Amazon, which sounds like Minnesota nice dreck about how to be nice on the Internet, mixed with a steaming pile of Jungian psychology-related bullshit, which sounds just about right for Stedman.

 

Even if he DID call himself an atheist, I would not consider him one. Since atheism is not a "faith" or a "religion," it's an oxymoron at minimum to for himself to peddle himself as an "interfaith activist" if he does, elsewhere, call himself an atheist. 

In addition, that gets back to atheist critiques at the time he wrote "Faitheist" and earlier — he softpedals what atheism is. But, for him? It's also surely all about the "brand."

That said, a full decade ago, Stedman was peddling misleading claims about the parallels between interfaith movements and atheism.

As for me? If you asked me to participate in a "humanist movement" meeting with religious as well as secular humanists involved? I'd be there. But not an interfaith movement. And, this in turn means that Stedman probably needs to read some Gilbert Ryle. Ditto for Jesse Galef and others he name-dropped. If they're conflating "interfaith" and "humanism," they made a big-assed category mistake. And that is another reason not to want to play ball on their field. 

And, as Stedman either knows and ignores, or else doesn't know and is not trustable intellectually, names do mean something. Per ordinary language analysis, it is a "game" as to what name we use, because it does frame what the conversations will be about.

Third, he has a podcast (but of course) listed by Mashable (but of course) at No. 18 on its best new podcasts list. Surely some branding going on there, too. Next, we will find out that Chris is either "trans" (without the suffixed adjective, but surely "-gender" not "-sexual") or else that he's straight.

Fourth, for laughs, read the reviews at Goodreads, especially the one-star ones. As I told a reviewer that is identified as "Augsburg University," I doubt the atheism part.

All in all? A tribute to the Peter Principle, maybe. And, if somebody accuses me of envy, I'll freely cop to that. I'll still insist that, at the same time, the diagnosis is true.

Update, Sept. 5, 2022: But of course Stedman had a puff piece interview over her mysticism claims with the late Barbara Ehrenreich, with both interview and her claims discussed in my eventual takedown obit.