My Path to Atheism: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

My Path to Atheism, credited to Annie Besant, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of My Path to Atheism by Annie Besant. Read in English by Kevin Green. My Path to Atheism is a remarkable document in many ways, not least that it was written by a woman in Victorian England, not the most open free-thinking of societies, especially for women at that time. It needed a remarkable woman to write such a revolutionary and to 19th century minds, heretical document in a society where the Church had such a stronghold. Besant herself was originally married to a clergyman, but her increasingly anti-religious views and writings led to a legal separation. She went on to become a member of the National Secular Society and thence to co-edit the National Reformer, which put forth ideas on revolutionary ideas at the time such as trades unions, national education, birth control and so on. In 1877 Besant published this book 'My Path to Atheism' which was compiled from a series of lectures in which she surgically dissects the basic tenets of Christianity. As one reads the chapters, one can follow the evolution of her ideas from Theism to Atheism, ending up with a stunning refutation of the Church of England Catechism. (Summary by Kevin Green)

Recording facts

• Recording title: My Path to Atheism
• Author credits: Annie Besant
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 26
• Listed recording duration: 11:13:38

Catalogue topics

• Christianity
• bible
• criticism
• atheism

Opening tracks: first 24 of 26

1. 00 - Preface to First Edition — 8:13
2. 01 - On the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth — 30:54
3. 02 - A comparison between the fourth gospel and the three synoptics — 43:38
4. 03 - On the Atonement — 49:21
5. 04 - On the Mediation and Salvation of Ecclesiastical Christianity — 29:31
6. 05 - On Eternal Torture — 45:10
7. 06 - On Inspiration — 39:41
8. 07 - On the Religious Education of Children — 23:43
9. 08 - Natural Religion versus Revealed Religion — 39:18
10. 09 - On the Nature and Existence of God. Part 1 — 35:12
11. 10 - On the Nature and Existence of God. Part 2 — 36:26
12. 11 - Euthanasia — 36:18
13. 12 - On Prayer — 29:30
14. 13 - Constructive Rationalism — 24:37
15. 14 - The Beauties of the Prayer-Book — 41:29
16. 15 - The Communion Service — 20:31
17. 16 - The Baptismal Offices — 12:53
18. 17 - The Order of Confirmation — 4:56
19. 18 - The Form of the Solemnization of Matrimony — 8:36
20. 19 - The Order for the Visitation of the Sick — 10:09
21. 20 - The Order for the Burial of the Dead — 7:49
22. 21 - A Commination or Denouncing of God's Anger and Judgements against Sinners — 6:04
23. 22 - Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea — 5:39
24. 23 - The Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, according to the Order of the United Church of England and Ireland — 10:28

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.