Defining and redefining atheism: dictionary and encyclopedia entries for “atheism” and their critics in the anglophone world from the early modern period to the present

ABSTRACT

This article examines dictionaries and encyclopedias’ coverage of the term “atheism” in the anglophone world from the early modern period up until the twentieth century. The article recounts how most dictionary- and encyclopedia-makers often portrayed atheism as an irrational and immoral belief system, through their use of negative illustrative quotations or the idea of “atheism” as a denial of God. The article will also show how atheists responded to these dictionaries and encyclopedias, particularly by examining the alternative definition supplied in the middle of the nineteenth century by Charles Bradlaugh, the most important British atheist of the era.