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==See also==
==See also==
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*[[Richard Dawkins|Dawkins, Richard]]
*[[Deism]]
*[[Deism]]
*[[Don Cupitt]]
*[[Don Cupitt]]
*[[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]
*[[Thorkild Grosboll]]
*[[Thorkild Grosboll]]
*[[Charles Maurras]]
*[[Charles Maurras]]

Revision as of 18:21, 31 October 2009

Christian atheism is a belief system in which the God of Christianity is rejected but the teachings of Jesus are followed.

Beliefs

Christian atheist beliefs may vary significantly. However, despite their differences, there are a few basic concepts which characterize Christian atheists. Thomas Ogletree, an assistant professor of Constructive Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary, lists these four common beliefs:

  1. the assertion of the unreality of God for our age, including the understandings of God which have been a part of traditional Christian theology
  2. the insistence upon coming to grips with contemporary culture as a necessary feature of responsible theological work
  3. varying degrees and forms of alienation from the church as it is now constituted
  4. recognition of the centrality of the person of Jesus in theological reflection [1]

God's existence

Christian atheists do not believe in the existence of God. They say that “for the modern, post-Christian man God is neither necessary nor unnecessary. He is irrelevant; he is dead”[2]. To them, God has ceased to be “a ‘need fulfiller’ and ‘problem solver’” [1]. To the Christian atheist, the existence of a supreme being is improbable and unnecessary. Like many atheists, Christian atheists believe that there is no God because there is no evidence of him. According to Paul van Buren, another Death of God theologian, the word God itself is “either meaningless or misleading” [1]. He contends that it is impossible to think about God. God is supposed to be infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. Van Buren tells us that “we cannot identify anything which will count for or against the truth of our statements concerning ‘God’” [1]. In essence, Christian atheists generally do not believe in things which cannot be proven empirically.

Most Christian atheists believe that God never existed, but there are a few who believe in the death of God literally [3]. Literalists say that there was a God, but that he annihilated himself. Thomas J. J. Altizer is a well known Christian atheist who is known for his literal approach to the death of God. He often speaks of God’s death as a redemptive event. In his book The Gospel of Christian Atheism he speaks of how “every man today who is open to experience knows that God is absent, but only the Christian knows that God is dead, that the death of God is a final and irrevocable event, and that God’s death has actualized in our history a new and liberated humanity” [4]. Notice how Altizer delineates between a belief that “God is absent” and that “God is dead”. This is the belief of literalists—that not only is God absent, but that he actually did die. They see his death as an actual historical event. Most Christian atheists do not tend to see God’s death literally, though. They see it in the non-literal, atheistic sense; when they say that God is dead, they mean that there is not and never has been such a being. [3]

Dealing with culture

The whole idea of Christian atheism was created out of the attempts of theologians to reconcile Christianity and our increasingly secular culture [1]. Theologians looked at the scientific, empirical culture of today and tried to find religion’s place in it. In Altizer’s words, “No longer can faith and the world exist in mutual isolation… the radical Christian condemns all forms of faith that are disengaged with the world” [4]. He goes on to say that our response to atheism should be one of “acceptance and affirmation” [4]. Christian atheists want to mesh Christianity and modern culture.

Christian atheists reject the current state of the Christian message and want to make Christianity more meaningful to people in the modern world. Colin Lyas, a Philosophy lecturer at Lancaster University, stated that “Christian atheists are united also in the belief that any satisfactory answer to these problems must be an answer that will make life tolerable in this world, here and now and which will direct attention to the social and other problems of this life” [3]. They want something that will help them with life now rather than a religion whose focus is on things of the next life.

Most Christian atheists believe that Christianity cannot last unless it is molded to fit our modern culture. The basic idea is that today’s culture cannot be subjected to the transcendental qualities of orthodox Christianity [2]. According to them, people living in today’s world are skeptical and can no longer believe in such a being as God. As a solution to this problem, they say that Christianity must reject the idea of a God. Instead of looking to the past, Christian atheists say that Christians must look to the future and reshape theology to fit current culture.

Separation from the church

In opposition to the Death of God theology stands orthodox Christianity. Altizer has said that “the radical Christian… believes that the ecclesiastical tradition has ceased to be Christian” [4]. He believed that orthodox Christianity no longer had any meaning to people because it did not discuss Christianity within the context of contemporary theology. Christian atheists want to be completely separated from most orthodox Christian beliefs and biblical traditions [5].

Because of their atheistic beliefs, Christian atheists view the concept of faith differently than most orthodox Christians. They feel that they can only have faith if God is dead [4]. Their faith is not based on a supreme being. Altizer states that a faith will not be completely pure if it is open to modern culture. This faith “can never identify itself with an ecclesiastical tradition or with a given doctrinal or ritual form.” He goes on to say that faith cannot “have any final assurance as to what it means to be a Christian” [4]. Most Christians seem to believe that faith is something sure and constant and that what it means to be Christian is always the same. Christian atheists, on the other hand, believe the opposite. They believe that faith is not constant, and they believe that doctrine and ritual have nothing to do with it.

Christian atheists believe that the way to true Christianity is through the culture of the world and not the worship of the divine. As Altizer said, “We must not, he says, seek for the sacred by saying ‘no’ to the radical profanity of our age, but by saying ‘yes’ to it” [5]. They see religions which withdraw from the world as moving away from truth. This is part of the reason why they see the existence of God as counter progressive. Altizer wrote of God as the enemy to man because mankind could never reach its fullest potential while God existed [4]. He went on to state that “to cling to the Christian God in our time is to evade the human situation of our century and to renounce the inevitable suffering which is its lot” [4]. They say that a belief in God is an escape from the world around us. To a Christian atheist, God is a restrictive and illogical idea; it keeps people from connecting with the world around them.

One of the major problems Christian atheists have with orthodox Christian beliefs is how absolute they are. The belief in an eternal, unchanging God, the belief that the scriptures are closed and that revelation is finished and the idea of one true form of faith are just a few of the Christian beliefs which are firm and absolute. Christian atheism rejects many of the truths at the very center of orthodox Christianity.

One Christian belief which Christian atheists disagree with is the belief that the core doctrines of Christianity are eternal and unchanging. Christian atheists believe that Christians “must abandon the idea that theology is a continual elucidation of an eternal and unchanging Word” [4]. They think that people should no longer believe that “there is a single essence of Christianity, or an inner core of unchanging faith, or a form of faith meaning all things to all men” [4]. Simply put, Christian atheists are relativists; they believe that what’s true depends on each person’s own views and on the cultural circumstances.

Another orthodox Christian tenet that Christian atheists attack is the belief that revelation does not occur in modern times. Many Christians believe the Bible to be the complete word of God and say that nothing can be added to it. This doctrine of a closed canon stands directly in the way of Christian atheist beliefs [4]. The Bible does not really support the Death of God theology, therefore, unless adding to the Bible becomes acceptable, Christian atheists will not receive much support from mainstream Christians.

Christian atheists criticize orthodox Christians for separating themselves from the world. In a seemingly strange way, radical Christians reject a faith which shelters people from the fears and hardships of the world around them. Believing that faith must be open to “doubt and suffering,” they see it as the duty of Christians to suffer and help others [4]. They call on Christians to embrace the world, rather than isolating themselves from the world [4]. Hamilton explains this belief when he says, “In the time of the death of God, we have a place to be. It is not before an altar; it is in the world, in the city, with both the needy neighbor and the enemy” [6]. Here is the reason why Christian atheists criticize normal Christians; they see mainstream Christians as hypocritical. To the radical Christian, a belief in God leaves a Christian “before an altar”, occupied with thoughts of divinity and the next life. This causes the orthodox Christian to forget about the world he is in now and the Christian ideals which he expounds. Essentially, Christian atheists see a separation from the world as a separation from what a Christian is supposed to be, which is someone who suffers along with everyone else in the world.

The centrality of Jesus

Jesus, although not seen as divine, is still a central feature of Christian atheism. Most Christian atheists think of Jesus as a wise and good man, accepting his moral teachings but rejecting the idea of his divinity. Hamilton said that to the Christian atheist, Jesus is not really the foundation of faith; instead he is a “place to be, a standpoint” [5]. Christian atheists look to Jesus as an example of what a Christian should be, but they do not see him as a God.

As touched on in the section about separation from the church, Christian atheists criticize orthodox Christians for not living in the world, for not being connected to the rest of humanity. So to Christian atheists, Jesus showed the way for them to suffer with the rest of humanity. This is different from the rest of Christianity. Instead of seeing Jesus as the way to heaven, Christian atheists see him as the way to humanity. Hamilton tells us that, to the Christian atheist, following Jesus means being “alongside the neighbor, being for him” [5]. Here the “neighbor” Hamilton is speaking of, is another human being. Hamilton is saying that to follow Jesus means to be human, to help other humans, and to further mankind. In doing this they see Jesus as an example of a really good human being, nothing more. They want to become the kind of human being Jesus was; they want to be thoroughly human.

By Denomination

Roman Catholic

Catholic atheism is a belief in which the culture, traditions, rituals and norms of Catholicism are accepted but the idea of the existence of God is rejected.[dubiousdiscuss] European philosopher Gustavo Bueno, main author of materialism philopsophy, projected arguments for the non-existence of divinity. "The Catholic Church have saved the Reason in the history of Europe. The belief in God is something metaphysical, the Church is something historical. One must have reality and know the significance of the Church in the history."[7]

See also

Further reading

  • Soury, M. Joles (1910). Un athée catholique. E. Vitte. ASIN B001BQPY7G.
  • Altizer, Thomas J. J. (2002). The New Gospel of Christian Atheism. The Davies Group. ISBN 1888570652.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Ogletree, Thomas W. The Death of God Controversy. New York: Abingdon Press, 1966.
  2. ^ a b Bent, Charles N. The Death of God Movement. New York: Paulist Press, 1967.
  3. ^ a b c Lyas, Colin. "On the Coherence of Christian Atheism." The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy 45(171): 1970.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Altizer, Thomas J. J. The Gospel of Christian Atheism. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966.
  5. ^ a b c d Altizer, Thomas J. J. and William Hamilton. Radical Theology and The Death of God. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.,1966.
  6. ^ "The ‘God is Dead’ Movement." Time 1965:
  7. ^ La storia della “guerra” che la sinistra di Zapatero ha innescato alla ricerca del potere (in Italian)