Further Reading and References
Søren Kierekegaard’s Fear and Trembling is a Penguin Classic, translated
by Alastair Hannay (1985): see page 62 for the quote.
Simone Weil’s remarks are in Letter to A Priest, published in several
anthologies, and by Penguin (2003).
True Religion, by Graham Ward, published by Blackwell (2003), examines
why the emergence of the scientifi c worldview is not the end of reli-
gion but the remaking of it.
All the quotes from Plato are taken from Plato Complete Works, edited by
John M. Cooper, published by Hackett Publishing Company (1997).
The quote from the Phaedrus is at 278d.
1. Socrates’ Quest: The Agnostic Spirit
Greek Religion, by Walter Burkert, translated by John Raffan, published
by Blackwell (1985), is the standard text on the eponymous subject.
The Religion of Socrates, by Mark L. McPherran, published by Penn State
University Press (1996), is the most thorough examination of the his-
torical Socrates’ attitude and feelings about religion and belief that
I have seen.
The Road to Delphi: The Life and Afterlife of Oracles, by Michael Wood,
published by Picador (2003), is a fascinating and evocative study of
the role of ancient oracles.
Protagoras’ writings only survive as a few fragments, including the two
quoted here.
The quote from Plato’s Laws is at 948c. The quote from Plato’s Timeaus
is at 29a–c.
Xenophon’s Socratic ‘proof’ for the existence of gods is in his Memoirs
of Socrates 1.4. The account of Socrates’ response to the oracle begins
at Apology 20e.
Plutarch’s account of Socrates’ peripatetic method is in Whether a Man
Should Engage in Politics when He Is Old, 26, 796d.
The ‘four-part cure’ is cited in The Epicurus Reading: Selected Writings
and Testimonia, translated and edited by Bran Inwood, L.P. Gerson
and D.S. Hutchinson, published by Hackett Publishing Company
(1994).
The discussion about gods and goodness (or piety) is in Plato’s Euthyphro
9c following.
Diotima’s contribution in Plato’s Symposium begins at 201d. Alcibiades
appears at 212d.
The interview with Bertrand Russell is reprinted in Russell on Religion:
Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell, published by Routledge
(1999), Chapter 4, ‘What Is an Agnostic?’