This week we delve into one of the most innovative and insightful theological movements of the 20th century. I’ll be introducing you to the death of God theologians, as well as some of their earlier influences. We’ll look at Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the religious God as a Deus ex Machina, Tillich’s concept of the God after God and Altizer’s understanding of the Death of God. We also look at Daly and Mother Teresa as examples of how this type of dialectic theology can express itself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his resistance to Nazi dictatorship. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison. Later he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried and executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.

Shortly before his death, Bonhoeffer started writing on what he called "Religionless Christianity". These writings became influential in the development of a post-theistic theology grounded in the work of liberation. The following are some excerpts.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

I’ve begun this weeks reflections with some of Bonhoeffer’s final thoughts because of the way that this work on ‘Religionless Christianity’ takes seriously, and builds upon, Nietzsche’s understanding of the Death of God. Bonhoeffer’s final reflections on theology are fragmentary in nature, and only hint at the profoundly innovative direction his work might have taken, had he not been executed. 

However, while his prison writings only offer glimpses of the way that his theology was developing (or changing), they do contain some very incisive and devastating critiques of religion and the traditional understanding of God. In addition to this, Bonhoeffer’s talent as a writer is also in full evidence, as he communicates profound ideas with precision, clarity and passion.

There is some debate as to whether Bonhoeffer’s prison writings signal a break with his earlier work, or whether they are a continuation of it. However, setting aside that discussion for a moment, there is no doubt that the prison writings proved profoundly significant for a new breed of subversive thinkers, thinkers who were key in the development of Radical Theology. 

As you read these words of Bonhoeffer, you will be able to see that he is attempting to discern the shape of a new Reformation in Christianity, one that would embrace and sublimate the critiques we witnessed in the previous week. A Reformation that would utterly shed the religious dimension of faith that the great ‘Masters of Suspicion’ had so powerfully critiqued.

SUPPLEMENTAL Material

I've included a document that holds all the relevant material for those who would like to do further research, as well as a link to buying the book. In addition to this, I’ve enclosed a link to a five-week course I taught on Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity. The course is available to everyone signed up to the Blaze level of my Patreon.

Thomas Altizer (1927 – 2018) was one of the most significant representatives of Radical Theology. Radical Theology represents one of the most innovative, provocative and fertile theological movements of the 20th century. While the ideas behind the movement had long been discussed within the academy, it burst onto the public stage in a dramatic way in the 1960’s.

While the movement exploded onto the public scene in a spectacular fashion, it disappeared almost as quickly. Since that time, Altizer was largely sidelined by the academy. Yet he continued to write provocative, difficult and innovative work right up to his death. The question remains as to whether he will have a mere footnote in the intellectual life of the 20th century, or eventually be hailed as one of its most prophetic and innovative children.

One of Altizer’s most well known books was a collaborative work - with William Hamilton - called Radical Theology and the Death of God. For todays reflection, I’d like you to read the essay ‘America and the Future of Theology’ from that work. I’ve included a link to the whole book. But, if you’t use the download, I’ve also included a link to the book that is available online.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Altizer is a difficult and esoteric thinker, who is one of the most important theological figures of the 20th century. While he largely disappeared into obscurity after the 1960’s, he continued to produce important work until his death. Work that may one day reestablish him as a thinker of world historical importance.

It was difficult to find something from Altizer to include in Atheism for Lent, because so much of his work requires a background in philosophy to properly understand. But today’s short essay - written near the beginning of the Death of God movement of the 1960’s - fits well with yesterdays reflection, in that it captures an unwavering desire to go as deeply into the profane destruction of religion as possible. Further than most of the critics of religion knew was possible to go. 

Like Bonhoeffer’s prison writings, this essay is less about what is to come, and more about the need to move forward. The essay is all about a movement into the future, a movement that takes seriously developments in history in which we experience a deeper and deeper loss of the religious.

The notion of Kenosis remained a central motif of Altizer’s work. Indeed it could be said to provide the key to understanding his entire project. The idea of the self emptying of God into the world and onto the Cross was, for Altizer, a high point in history that captured something about the dynamic nature of reality. 

Looking back from the foot of the Cross, we can see this symbol reflecting a cosmological truth. For we can see the universe itself as a radical act of explosive self-emptying into everything that exists. Looking forward from that event, we can see it repeated in the world of science, which underwent its greatest developments as it lost God as a principle of explanation. Beyond that, Altizer saw this Death of God in Christ reflected on an existential level in the 19th and 20th century, when the idea of God faded as a necessary support for meaning and morality. For Altizer, all these are reflected in the image of the Crucified God. 

So, to identify with the Crucified God means to embrace this ongoing Kenotic hymn as it reverberates throughout history. The theological vocation involves going as far into that death is it is possible to go. For Altizer, it is only by undergoing this courageous decent into the profane, that we shall encounter the sacred.

Altizer’s writing is often bombastic, apocalyptic and difficult to penetrate, but it arises out of a profoundly systematic vision of the incendiary vocation of theology. A vocation that has the power to transform the world.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Below is a link if you’d like to purchase  Radical Theology and the Death of God. In addition to this, I’ve enclosed a link to a five-week course I taught on essays from the book Radical Theology and the Death of God. The course is available to everyone signed up to the Blaze level of my Patreon.

Paul Tillich (1886 – 1965) was an philosopher and theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century.

Among the general public, he is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957), which introduced issues of theology and modern culture to a general readership. Theologically, he is best known for his major three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63) in which he developed his "method of correlation", an approach of exploring the symbols of Christian revelation as answers to the problems of human existence raised by contemporary existential philosophical analysis.

His last book, published posthumously, was from a series of lectures and is called My Search for Absolutes. In this short work he skillfully articulated a way of thinking about morality, ethics and religion that embraced the subjective and objective sides of life. Drawing Absolutism and Relativism together in a relationship that remained sensitive to both.

Todays reflection is an abridged section from the last chapter of the book. The book also includes illustrations from the artist Saul Steinberg. This little known book is a good place to start for people new to the work of Tillich. For those of you who have a little more time on your hands, and who are already familiar with the work of Tillich, I have an alternative reading that you can find in the ‘Supplemental Material’ section.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Tillich is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in providing a theoretical foundation for an approach to theology that is transcends the narrower world of Confessional Church. As a master in both theology and philosophy, he was able to articulate an approach to the idea of God that actively took up all the historical developments we have seen in this course so far, while remaining true to the most ancient understandings of faith.

His work acts as a type of mediation between a narrower form of confessional faith that is connected to what we witness in churches and a wider notion of faith that encompasses all areas of life and transcends any particular type of theistic or atheistic belief.

In this way, Tillich’s work, while still dynamic and worthwhile in itself, acted as an important bridge to a form of theological discussion that moved from the notion of God as ground of being, to the possibility of a theology as a way of encountering a type of primordial groundlessness. A subject that will come up in next weeks reflections.

supplemental material

I’ve included the full version of the chapter below, as well as a link to My Search for Absolutes. I’ve also included a longer essay by Tillich called “Two Types of Philosophy of Religion” that offers a more in-depth reflection on his understanding of God. This essay is an absolutely brilliant piece of philosophical theology. For people more familiar with philosophy and the work of Tillich, I’d recommend you read this essay in place of todays reflection as it is a real tour de force that succinctly expresses Tillich’s view on God.

In addition to all this, I’ve enclosed a link to a four-week course I taught on the book My Search for Absolutes. The course is available to everyone signed up to the Blaze level of my Patreon.

Toward a Hidden God (1966) was an article in TIME magazine that explored some of the themes being explored by modern theologians who were seriously engaging with issues around secularism. This article brought the discipline of Radical Theology to a popular audience.

The magazine cover remains one of the most iconic images in publishing history and drew heavy criticism. It is also one of the best selling TIME magazines.

This article came after a previous controversial article from October 1965, that had investigated a trend among 1960s theologians to write about the death of God in theology. Today’s reflection is the 1966 article.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

This issue of TIME is perhaps the most iconic and widely read issue in its history. I wanted to include it because it gives a sense of how influential the conversations around Radical Theology were at this point in American history.

In many ways, this brief moment in the 1960’s represented the last point in time in which theologians could also be public intellectuals.

Today we are witnessing the beginnings of what may be a new Golden-Age for public intellectuals, who are finding new and innovative ways to do theoretical work outside the confines of the academy. This might also signal a new possibility for the return of the public theological thinker, something that can be seen in the meteoric rise of Slavoj Zizek who, like Tillich before him, is both a philosophical and theological master.

supplemental reading

I've included the 1965 article for a little background, as well as a wikipedia article outlining the controversy.

Mary Daly (1928 – 2010) was a feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly published a number of works, and is perhaps best known for Beyond God the Father (1973). Often regarded as a foundational work in feminist theology, this book is her attempt to explain and overcome what she calls ‘androcentrism in Western religion'. In her books, Daly developed a theological anthropology based around the context of what it means to be a woman. 

She was the first woman to speak in Harvard's s Memorial Church. Upon closing her sermon she urged her "sisters and other esteemed members of the congregation" to join her in what she called "an exodus from centuries of darkness." More than half the women and some men in the congregation joined her in walking out of the church before the service was finished.

The following is that sermon, read by a student and friend of Daly, Xochitl Alvizo. 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

I wanted to include this sermon because of the way that it brings together a preacherly passion, intellectual precision and prophetic intensity.

It is also a great example of Daly’s theological approach, one that is firmly and exhaustively rooted in the world and in questions of justice.

This sermon catches a truly important moment in the life of Daly. For it signals the hinge between her early theological work and her turn to gender theory.

While Daly turned away from narrow theological concerns in her later life, this can be seen as a direct expression of her theological grounding. For Daly, who was deeply influenced by Tillich, saw the passionate quest for beauty, truth, freedom or justice (among others) as different ways of expressing the dimension of the Ultimate. Her own commitment to justice was then the continuation of a theological project. A project that was not confined to the confessional church, which she came to oppose.

supplemental material

I’ve included the text of this sermon and a link to a Mary Daly reader.

Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997), was a Catholic nun and missionary who lived in India for most of her life. Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, which manages homes for people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis as well as soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counseling programs; orphanages, and schools.

Teresa received a number of honors in her lifetime and was canonised in 2016. The following excerpts are from her dairy's and reflect the deep sense of divine absence. An absence that was a profound and important part of her spiritual life. I originally recorded this is 2011 as part of an ikon gathering. We titled it "Confessions of an Un/Believer". You can also download this clip from my Soundcloud.

SUPPLEMENTAL reflection

Mother Teresa offers a, perhaps unexpected, lived example of some of the ideas we’ve encountered this week. In many ways one might want to see her as a patron saint of a form of Radical Theology, although she would have likely have rejected such an idea. 

The reason for her inclusion at the end of this week arises from the way that doubt played out in her life. 

Her original call to become a nun can be viewed as a concrete example of the religious sacrifice as it represents the point when she gave up everything for God. It was some years later however when she experienced what she described as her “call within the call.” This can be seen as nothing less than her identification with Christ on the Cross. For here she lost everything, including God. This loss was not a fleeting experience that arose at small and insignificant intervals during her work but remained with her  until the end. 

What we witness very directly in this movement from her original “call” to the “call within the call” is an embodiment of this theological move into the profane. In the call she stands with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (willing to lose everything for God) while in the call within the call she hangs with Christ on the Cross (losing everything including God). This is the transition from the ultimate religious sacrifice to the sacrifice of religion itself. The later event does not supersede the former but rather deepens it.

For Mother Teresa, her devotion to the work became her affirmation of the Absolute. Her dedication to the world became her experience of heaven. What she lost internally as a type of ‘inner’ or ‘authentic’ experience was regained externally in her devotion to the other.

Indeed, the main reason why she wanted her journals destroyed, was not to hide the truth of her inner doubts, but rather because people might mistakenly think the truth of ones faith is found in some inner experience, when the truth of ones faith was to be found in the concrete work she was doing.

supplemental reading

I have included a download of the reading and a link to Mother Teresa’s book. I’ve also linked to a Mike Scott song called Wonderful Disguise, which is based on something Mother Teresa said in her last interview.