This volume deals with scepticism and irreligion in the 17th and 18th century. The various contributions seek to clarify and to understand the challenges made then to both the framework of thinking about God and religion and the intellectual systems that had supported religious thinking. Ample attention is given to early modern interpretations of ancient Pyrrhonism and also to biblical criticism.

Contributors include: Susanna Åkerman, Silvia Berti, Constance Blackwell, Olivier Bloch, Harry M. Bracken, James E. Force, Alan Gabbey, Sarah Hutton, David S. Katz, Alan Charles Kors, Lothar Kreimendahl, Sylvia Murr, Ezequiel de Olaso, Richard Popkin, Theo Verbeek, Ernestine van der Wall, Richard A. Watson, and Ruth Whelan.

Contributions by: Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Seymour Martin Lipset, Ralf Dahrendorf, Shlomo Avineri, Shlomo Ben Ami, Carlo Rosetti, Luis Roniger, Myron Weiner, Erik H. Cohen, Ben-Ami Shillony, Naomi Chazan, Metin Heper