Geroulanos, Stefanos

Stefanos Geroulanos is a historian of modern European thought whose work has significantly influenced contemporary understandings of atheism and secularization. His groundbreaking study "An Atheism That Is Not Humanist Emerges in French Thought" (2010) traces the development of antihumanist atheism in twentieth-century French philosophy, examining figures like Alexandre Kojève, Georges Bataille, and Emmanuel Levinas. Geroulanos demonstrates how these thinkers moved beyond nineteenth-century atheistic humanism to develop forms of atheism that rejected anthropocentric worldviews and the substitution of humanity for God. His work reveals how French antihumanism emerged from attempts to think atheism without recourse to human sovereignty or secular substitutes for divine authority. This scholarship has been crucial for understanding the relationship between atheism, antihumanism, and critiques of metaphysics in continental philosophy, while also illuminating the diverse trajectories of secular thought beyond simple God-denial.