Author Guide · Secular Buddhism
Books Written by
Stephen Batchelor left Watford for India at eighteen, was ordained a novice monk in the Tibetan Gelug tradition in Dharamsala in 1974, and in 1981 went to Songgwangsa monastery in South Korea to train in Zen under Kusan Sunim. In February 1985 he gave up his robes and married Martine Fages, a former Zen nun he had met there. The books he has written since ask what remains of the Buddha’s teaching once rebirth, karma as cosmic law and religious authority are set aside, a position now usually called secular Buddhism. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1983–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Stephen Batchelor’s best-known books are Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997), Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010), After Buddhism (2015) and The Art of Solitude (2020); his most recent is Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025). Start with Buddhism Without Beliefs, the short book that set out the agnostic approach the later ones develop.
Where to Start with Stephen Batchelor
If you want his defining book
→ Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997) — the short case for Buddhism as a practice, not a belief system.
If you want his life story
→ Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010) — memoir of his monastic years and a portrait of the historical Buddha.
If you want the fullest version of his argument
→ After Buddhism (2015) — a close reading of the Pali Canon for a secular age.
If you want something quieter and more personal
→ The Art of Solitude (2020) — essay, memoir and meditation in one book.
12 Stephen Batchelor Books, in Order
Alone with Others
His first book, written while he was still a monk. It reads Buddhist ideas alongside Western existential philosophy, looking at how a person can be at once fundamentally alone and bound up with other people.
The Faith to Doubt
A book about the place of doubt in spiritual practice, drawing on his own training, first as a Tibetan Buddhist monk and then as a Zen practitioner. Following Kierkegaard, it treats doubt not as the enemy of faith but as the point where faith can begin.
The Awakening of the West
A history of the meeting between Buddhism and Western culture, covering the long span from 543 BCE to 1992.
Buddhism Without Beliefs
A short book arguing that the Buddha offered something to do rather than something to believe. Batchelor takes an agnostic position on rebirth and other metaphysical claims. It became his most widely read book and is often cited as a founding text of secular Buddhism.
Verses from the Center
A free verse rendering of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the treatise on emptiness by the second-century Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna, with an introduction that reads it as a poetic rather than a purely logical text.
Living with the Devil
A meditation on good and evil that follows the idea of the devil from the Buddha and Christ through Šāntideva, Milton, Pascal, Baudelaire and Kafka, and asks how to live with the “devils” of fear and habitual self-interest rather than be ruled by them. In 2017 he wrote the libretto for MĀRA: A Chamber Opera on Good and Evil.
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Two stories told in alternating parts. One is his own: the overland journey to India, his years as a monk in the Tibetan and Korean Zen traditions, and his growing doubts about rebirth and religious authority. The other is a reconstruction of Siddhattha Gotama as a historical man in the north of India, pieced together from the Pali Canon. The title, and the book’s view of rebirth, drew sharp criticism from traditional Buddhists.
After Buddhism
Published by Yale University Press, his most detailed argument. Reading the early Pali texts closely, he tries to separate what he sees as the Buddha’s distinctive ideas from the religious beliefs of his time and place, and sets out what a dharma practice for a secular age could look like.
Secular Buddhism
A collection of his essays from several decades, on doubt, meditation, art, ethics and the place of Buddhism in modern life, which shows how his secular reading developed over time.
What Is This?
Written with Martine Batchelor, a short book on the Korean Zen practice of asking “What is this?”, the question both trained with at Songgwangsa, and on how questioning can be used as a form of meditation.
The Art of Solitude
A short book from Yale University Press that mixes memoir, history, collage, essay and meditation instruction. It opens with an ayahuasca experience in which he feels he lets go of his attachment to Buddhism, and sets the teachings of the Buddha beside the essays of Montaigne. Kirkus Reviews called it “a very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life”.
Buddha, Socrates, and Us
Published by Yale University Press in August 2025. It compares the Buddha and Socrates, near contemporaries who never met, and argues that both made critical self-examination, not certainty about ultimate reality, the basis of an ethical life. He proposes a middle way between dharma and Greek philosophy as the ground for a “secular faith”.
In What Order to Read Stephen Batchelor
None of his books depends on another, so you can start anywhere. Publication order does show a clear line, though: from the existential and Zen-inflected early books, through the agnostic manifesto of Buddhism Without Beliefs, to the scholarly reconstruction of After Buddhism and the turn to Western philosophy in The Art of Solitude and Buddha, Socrates, and Us.
If you want the argument first, read Buddhism Without Beliefs, then After Buddhism. If you want the person behind the argument, read Confession of a Buddhist Atheist first: it explains how a monk of ten years came to these views.
A reading path
1. Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997)
2. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010)
3. After Buddhism (2015)
4. The Art of Solitude (2020)
5. Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025)
Everything Else Stephen Batchelor Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Early works and guides
2
2 books · 1984–1987
- 1984Flight: An Existential Conception of Buddhisma booklet in the Buddhist Publication Society’s Wheel series
- 1987The Tibet Guidea travel guide, revised in 1998 as The Tibet Guide: Central and Western Tibet
Translations and edited books
5
5 books · 1979–2000
- 1979A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Lifehis translation of Šāntideva
- 1983Echoes of Voidnessteachings of Geshe Rabten, translated and edited
- 1986The Jewel in the Lotusa guide to the Buddhist traditions of Tibet, as editor
- 1989Song of the Profound ViewGeshe Rabten, translated and annotated
- 2000The Psychology of Awakeningco-edited with Gay Watson and Guy Claxton
The years · 1953–2025
Quick facts about Stephen Batchelor
- Known for
- Stephen Batchelor is known as the leading voice of secular Buddhism, the view that the Buddha’s teaching can be practised without belief in rebirth or other supernatural claims.
- 1953
- Born in Dundee, Scotland
- 1974
- Ordained a novice monk in Dharamsala
- 1981
- Zen training at Songgwangsa, Korea
- 2000
- Moves to France, near Bordeaux
- Born
- 7 April 1953, Dundee, Scotland; raised in Watford, Hertfordshire
- Monastic years
- Gelug novice in 1974, later fully ordained; Zen at Songgwangsa, South Korea, from 1981
- Left the robes
- February 1985, marrying Martine Fages, also a former Zen nun
- Teaching
- Guiding teacher at Gaia House, Devon; co-founder of Sharpham College (1996); Bodhi College faculty
- Lives
- In a village near Bordeaux, France, since 2000
- Also
- Contributing editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
The red mark is 1997: Buddhism Without Beliefs, the book that made his agnostic approach widely known.
How Stephen Batchelor Writes: Doubt as a Method
Batchelor writes as a practitioner who has lost his certainties and kept his practice. His central move is to treat the Buddha’s teaching as a set of tasks rather than truths: he recasts the four noble truths as four tasks, things to do rather than doctrines to believe, and the question of rebirth is left open rather than affirmed or denied. Doubt, which he learned from the Korean Zen question “What is this?”, is the method throughout.
He works close to the early texts. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist and After Buddhism build their picture of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, quoting the suttas and the people who appear in them, and Verses from the Center is his own rendering of Nāgārjuna. At the same time he keeps putting the Buddha beside Western thinkers: Montaigne in The Art of Solitude, Socrates in Buddha, Socrates, and Us.
His own life is often the material. The monastic years, the decision to disrobe and his doubts about Tibetan doctrine run through Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, and The Art of Solitude mixes memoir with collage, history and meditation instructions. The prose is plain and first-person, closer to the essay than to the sermon.
Watch
Stephen Batchelor in Conversation with Bing Song
Stephen Batchelor talks with Bing Song, director of the Berggruen Institute China Center, in a conversation recorded in Venice in November 2024. From the official Berggruen Institute channel.
Frequently asked questions about Stephen Batchelor’s books
How many books has Stephen Batchelor written?
Fourteen books of his own, including a 1984 booklet and The Tibet Guide (1987); 12 of them are the key books on this page, from Alone with Others (1983) to Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025). He has also translated and edited several more, including Šāntideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (1979).
What are Stephen Batchelor’s books in order?
Alone with Others (1983), The Faith to Doubt (1990), The Awakening of the West (1994), Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997), Verses from the Center (2000), Living with the Devil (2004), Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010), After Buddhism (2015), Secular Buddhism (2017), What Is This? (2019, with Martine Batchelor), The Art of Solitude (2020) and Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025).
Where should I start with Stephen Batchelor?
Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997). It is short and sets out the agnostic approach that all his later books develop. If you prefer a life story to an argument, start with Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.
What is Stephen Batchelor’s most famous book?
Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997), the book most often cited as the starting point of secular Buddhism. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010) is the best known for its title and its account of his years as a monk.
What is secular Buddhism?
An approach to the Buddha’s teaching that sets aside supernatural beliefs such as literal rebirth and treats the dharma as a practical, ethical way of life in this world. Batchelor is its best-known proponent; his 2017 book Secular Buddhism collects essays on the idea.
Was Stephen Batchelor a monk?
Yes, for about ten years. He was ordained a novice in the Tibetan Gelug tradition in 1974 and later fully ordained, then trained in Zen at Songgwangsa in South Korea from 1981. He and Martine Fages left monastic life and married in February 1985.
Why do some Buddhists criticise Stephen Batchelor?
His sceptical views on karma and rebirth, which many traditional Buddhists regard as central to the Buddha’s teaching, have drawn criticism. The best-known example is B. Alan Wallace’s article “Distorted Visions of Buddhism: Agnostic and Atheist” (Mandala, 2010), which drew a reply from secular Buddhist writers defending Batchelor’s reading.
Is Stephen Batchelor still alive?
Yes. He was born on 7 April 1953 in Dundee, Scotland, and lives with his wife Martine Batchelor near Bordeaux in France. His most recent book, Buddha, Socrates, and Us, was published in 2025.
What is The Art of Solitude about?
A short 2020 book that mixes memoir, essay, collage and meditation instruction. It opens with an ayahuasca experience and sets the Buddha beside Montaigne, treating solitude as a skill that can be trained.
Who is Martine Batchelor?
His wife, a former Zen nun who trained at Songgwangsa, where they met. She is a meditation teacher and author in her own right, and they wrote What Is This? (2019) together.
Footnotes
- Stephen Batchelor (author) — Wikipedia
- The Art of Solitude — Kirkus Reviews, 2020
- Buddha, Socrates, and Us — Tattered Cover
- The Buddha, Socrates, and Us — Lion’s Roar
- A reply to B. Alan Wallace’s “Distorted Visions of Buddhism” — Secular Buddhist Network, 2010
- Talks — stephenbatchelor.org
- Batchelor, Stephen 1953– — Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia.com
- Living with the Devil — Penguin Random House
- The Faith to Doubt — Counterpoint Press
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it.”
— Stephen Batchelor, The Art of Solitude (2020)
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