In the English-speaking world many Christians tend to think that atheism, as a coherent system at least, is a hoary relic of the nineteenth century and that as such it hardly merits serious attention. This book shows, however, that elsewhere, particularly in Europe, atheism is still a force to be reckoned with. Etienne Borne here surveys the de- velopment and characteristics of modern atheism in its various forms from its origins, which he traces principally in Hegel through Marx and Nietzsche to Sartre. He shows how, in its modern form, atheism - “absolute denial of the Absolute" - is frequently animated by a form of prophetic inspriation and how, in the case of Marxian dialectical materialism, it can envisage matter in terms that are virtually metaphysical. M. Borne examines atheism in the light of St Thomas's traditional refutations of its validity and also as one of the symptoms of what Romano Guardin. has called "the end of the modern world". A chaptel with the challenging title, "The Scandal and Necessity of Atheism", explores atheism as a phenomenon arising our of modern man's increasing insecurity as he extends his mastery over a nature which has lost all relation to the sacred.