Includes bibliographical references (p. [521]-528) and index.

Doubt is no shadow : a quiz and a guide to the question -- Whatever happened to Zeus and Hera?, 600 BCE-1 CE : Greek doubt -- Smacking the temple, 600 BCE-1 CE : doubt and the ancient Jews -- What the Buddha sa w, 600 BCE-1 CE: ancient doubt in Asia -- When in Rome in doubt, 50 BCE -1 CE : empire of reason -- Christian doubt, Zen, Elisha, and Hypatia, 1-800 CE : late-classical mix -- Medieval doubt loops-the-loop, 800-140 0 : Muslims to Jews to Christians -- The printing press and the Age of Martyrs, 1400-1600 : Renaissance and inquisition -- Sunspots and White House doubters, 1600-1800 : revolutions in the authority of reason -- D oubt's bid for a better work, 1800-1900 : freethinking in the age of sc ience and reform -- Principles of uncertainty, 1900- : the new cosmopol itan -- The joy of doubt : ethics, logic, mood.

In this sweeping history, Jennifer Michael Hecht celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and int ellectual dangers of certainty -- Just as belief has its own history fe aturing people whose unique expressions of faith have forever changed t he world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints m artyrs, and sages.