Atheism for Lent begins today! Thank you so much for joining me. Perhaps this is your first time experiencing this Decentering Practice, or maybe you’re a seasoned traveler. Personally, I’ve lead a dozen or more of these journeys into the wilderness, and each time I get something new from it.

Today I simply want to welcome you and take a little time to outline the structure of the course. While atheism is often seen as an enemy to the work and world of theology, it has always had a rich, deep and wide relationship to faith. In this introduction, I offer a brief overview of that relationship.

Knight and Squire is a six-issue, limited series comic book by Paul Cornell, Jimmy Broxton and Yanick Paquette, that offers a light-hearted parody of Batman and Robin.

The following excerpt is from the first issue and takes place in a pub called Time in a Bottle. The fascinating thing about the pub is that a truce spell was cast over it, meaning that no-one can fight in it.

It’s a place of radical suspension where two opposing sides can sit down, have a drink and discuss life.

I've included this excerpt close to the beginning because it offers a light hearted reflection on the philosophical notion of epoché. A term that means ‘suspension’ and that can be used to describe a space in which we suspend our usual assumptions in order to explore deeper truth.

We can think of Atheism for Lent as analogous to this pub, offering a Truce Spell that enables the seemingly different camps of theist and atheist come together, learn from each other and find commonality.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

My friend Jay Bakker was the one who put me onto the comic book. He was doing a talk, and mentioned this magical pub called 'Time in a Bottle' and it struck me as a great metaphor for what we were doing in ikon at the time (the community I facilitated in Belfast for many years). 

It was the philosopher John Caputo, who really brought out how we were creating that type of space, when he wrote about ikon in his book What Would Jesus Deconstruct, so I've included that section of the book as part of the supplemental material.

These spaces are like deserts in the oasis of our lives. Quiet places nestled in the midst of our everyday life, where we can experience some kind of deeper kinship with others.

Hopefully we all have these kinds of spaces somewhere in our lives, whether it's at our monthly poker game, weekly coffee morning, online discussion group etc. They can be places where we can can be free to drop our defenses, engage with others and experience briefly a type of connection with others that crosses boundaries.

Perhaps a question to ask yourself today involves reflecting on whether you have that type of space in your life and/or how you might cultivate one.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

In What Would Jesus Deconstruct the philosopher John Caputo, wrote about my work with the ikon community in Belfast. In that chapter he talked about ikon in relation to the theme of epoché. I’ve included that section below, as well as a link to where you can buy the full book (which I recommend). I’ve also enclosed a link to where you can buy Knight and Squire. 

Merold Westphal is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. His research and writing are focused on the philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and aesthetics.

His book, Suspicion and Faith, is what originally inspired me to create Atheism for Lent over 20 years ago. And while the Decentering Practice has changed and developed over the years, this book provided the impetuous.

In this introduction from Suspicion and Faith, Westphal offers a reflection on why people who are involved with Confessional Christianity would want to read the greatest critiques of religion as a Lenten practice. I felt that it was important to include something of his work in this journey. Also, the introduction to his book offers a beautiful reflection on how the religious critique of people like Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud flow together with the theological critiques of individuals like Kierkegaard.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

I've already mentioned the historical reason why I have included this little introduction (as a nod to the spark that started AfL), but it is also because it introduces the idea of atheistic critique as a purification process. One that he links with figures within the theological tradition,such as Luther and Barth.

The first AfL practice involved reading the whole book together. There were a few reasons why I moved away from that. Perhaps the main one was that the book primarily dealt with the idea of seeing atheism as a way of purifying theology and religious practice. While this is very interesting, I started to explore how the atheism was also a driving force in the development of theology and religious practice.

Regardless, the book offers a very insightful reading of how Feuerbach, Marx, Freud and Nietzsche can be read as critiques of what, in theology, is called idolatry. It is also offers a good introduction to those figures, if you are new to them.

Another book that does a similar thing to this one, that I would also recommend, is Graven Ideologies by Bruce Benson. It is a slightly more difficult work than Westphal's (dealing with some more difficult thinkers), but it's still very readable.

What I like most about the introduction is the way that Westphal is able to draw out how Instrumental (or Superstitious) Religion lurks within us, and how thinkers like Nietzsche can sound the alarm for us.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

If you enjoyed this introduction, I would recommend you get the whole book. Westphal has also written some other excellent books, including a brilliant selection of essays called Overcoming Ontotheology. Don’t let the title put you off, the essays are a little technical at times, but Westphal is a very clear writer, and a book with that title will make you look smart.

Eliezer Wiesel (1928–2016) was a writer and activist, whose book, Night, describes his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The following is a short reading from Night that describes the hanging of three prisoners. As a musical accompaniment, I added the 2nd movement from The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Górecki (1933–2010). The first movement uses a 15th-century Polish lament based on the lament of Mary, mother of Jesus. The second is inspired by a message written on the wall of a WWII Gestapo cell. The third is based on a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her son, killed in the Silesian uprisings. The first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and the second movement from that of a child separated from a parent.

This reflection closes out the first week as a way of feeling the heartfelt, deeply human and profoundly spiritual place that religious questioning can, and often does, arise from.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Today’s reflection mixes a truly beautiful piece of classical music by Górecki with a piece of harrowing writing from Wiesel.

There are a number of reasons why I wanted to include this reflection close to the beginning of this journey. The main one being the way in which the music and writing destabilize the usual separation between sacred and secular, between belief and non-belief. There is something simultaneously pious and profane about their cry.

For instance, when you listen to the words, the question arises as to whether the idea of 'God hanging on the Gallows' references how the death experienced in the camps contains a metaphysical dimension (involving the death of God, Meaning, the Absolute). Or whether it offers a type of proto 'Weak Theology,' in which God no longer exists, but 'insists' among the suffering (this notion being best articulated by thinkers like Vattimo and Caputo). Or whether it echoes the type of a/theistic mysticism best seen in the life of Simone Weil (who you'll encounter later in the practice).

The power of the reflection, for me, lies in the undecidability between these. It feels like a powerful expression of The Passion. A profound suffering that, in its very immanent protest, expresses something Wholly Other.

This reflection points to a wider transformation that happened in the aftermath of Shoah. This was the birth to a type of existential expression of faith that began to grapple with what Dostoevsky talked about when he sought a religious experience that fully embraced the human experience in its most profound dimension.

In many ways, this reflection is a foreshadowing of what we will see take shape in the last few weeks.

A more contemporary version of this type of experience can be seen in the album Curse Your Branches, by David Bazan. An album that is a heartfelt rejection of faith. But which, in its very form, traces the very shape of faith.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

I’ve enclosed links to ‘Night’ and the whole Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. I’ve also included a more contemporary example of the same kind of experience. A profoundly personal critique of the religious that has the feeling and form of faith. It is a link to the album Curse Your Branches, by David Bazan.