"God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
These words were written by Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, back in 1882. Nietzsche was an avid atheist during his adult life, so it's odd to hear such passionate remorse from someone who didn't necessarily believe in God, right?
Well, some interpretations suggest that it isn't completely out of the blue. In fact, many people believe that Nietzsche was using God as a metaphor for morality in his statement and wasn't referring to a capital-G "God" at all. Instead, he may have been implying that the morality that created the Western world is crumbling. We are a people facing a reality of nihilism, meaninglessness, and existential dread, unlike the purpose-driven holy warriors of old. By saying that God is dead, Nietzsche wasn't making a celebratory declaration: he was mourning the death of old morality.
Metaphoric or not, many people had strong reactions to Nietzsche's statement. You might remember the 2014 film "God's Not Dead," which had a sequel in 2016 and became a trilogy in 2018. In that series, a Christian college student's faith is challenged by his atheistic professor and presents the typical evangelical trope of Christian "suppression" in America.
Other people of faith, however, embraced the idea. What if the God we've known is, in fact, dead?
Radical Interpretations
Thomas Altizer, who died recently in 2018, was the biggest name of the God is Dead theology in the 1960s. Altizer proposed a literalist interpretation of Nietzsche's statement. To him, the God seen in the sacred scriptures was killed sometime in the modern era. It was atheism in a level that we have never seen prior, though Altizer still believed that a literal God did exist at one point. In fact, he often referred to himself as a "Christian atheist" as a means of addressing that he was a Christian living in a post-God time.
Altizer differed from Nietzsche on a number of points. Namely, he did not believe that humanity possessed the power to kill God, so God must have left of his own volition in the equivalent of sacred suicide. He believes that this suicide fulfills a pattern that began in the New Testament: as the Son died on the cross, so did the Father in the semi-recent past. Through His death, God passed the fate of the world into the hands of His creations and forces humanity to turn their attention to the worldly rather than the otherworldly, which the Church has struggled with since very early on. Think of the Reformation, for example.
Oddly, it sounds as though the Death of God turns Christianity to a more Jewish standpoint on the point of our existence. Judaism has always seen humanity as a partner in creation to God and puts a responsibility on the individual to make a difference in our physical lives. Christianity, it seems, will only do so if God Himself has left the picture.
So, in the eyes of many God is Dead theologians, God made a good decision by leaving. Now, humanity is left to face its own autonomy rather than submitting to a now-useless Church. The theology thrives in Protestant communities and othes who recognize a long list of problems with modern Christianity.
Revolutionary Interpretations
As our world changes, I find myself thinking more and more about the radical theologies of Altizer and his peers. Sometimes it's done in sorrow. Since I'm a theologian, my friends occasionally call me up and ask me for my thoughts on spiritual issues in light of current events, and I have to admit to myself that the absence of God would explain a lot. My standing is a little bit different as a Jew, however. God has seemingly abandoned us so many times that it's become fairly commonplace to question his presence, especially in the light of the Shoah (Holocaust), the constant destruction and discrimination, and more.
Yet, I think there's something to be said about the core message of the Death of God theology and what it means for a revolution, both within religion and out. Let me explain.
The Theologian's Responsibility. This interpretation falls on the thinkers and leaders of all faiths, and you'll notice me addressing this responsibility in a number of my posts. Here, God is "dead" in our conversations about faith because He is no longer included in them. Theologians are frequently in conversation with one another and sometimes stray so far from the information actually provided in the Scriptures and our faith evolves into something completely new. I cite this as part of the reason why Christianity has changed from a radical left-wing faith into the favorite of the rich, the white supremacists, and the otherwise privileged. The faith is no longer about acceptance and generosity, it is about sin and superiority, therefore God is no longer a part of the faith. When writing about religion, we need to ensure that we are examining the true message of the Scripture instead of simply responding to those who we agree or disagree with. We cannot let God's message be taken out of context and in vain.
The Individual Responsibility. Ultimately, the message behind the God is Dead theology involves a move towards independence. This means abandoning the common mindset of "God will take care of it" or "Leave it to God." We must be devoted to making a change in our current world instead of ignoring it and trusting that the afterlife will be better. Like I stated earlier, I notice this mindset moreso among my Christian peers than my Jewish community, but it still causes a lot of complacency and passivity. Learn to see yourself as a messenger of God who improves this world rather than a meer observer.
The God is Dead theology is one of empowerment. If we are, in fact, living in a post-God world, we need to step up and run our countries as He would.