Prof. Altizer and the "Death of God" postulate

Some of you with grey hair may remember the controversy that swirled around Atanta professor Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer in the mid-1960s when he proclaimed his theory that "God had died."

This rather unusual propsition was not to be taken as a metaphor (i.e., the idea that "human belief in God was declining or had died," etc.) Rahter, Prof. Altizer literally claimed that once there had been a ssprime being called "God," who had subsequently died, like a mortal being, leving the rest of His creation to flail around in confusion and fend for itself.

Altizer has claimed his theories have been oversimplified and misunderstood:

Altizer has repeatedly claimed that scorn, outcry, and even death threats he received were misplaced. On a pure level, Altizer's religious proclamation viewed God's death (really a self-extinction) as a process that began at the world's creation and came to an end through Jesus Christ—whose crucifixion in reality poured out God's full spirit into this world. In developing his position Altizer drew upon the dialectical thought of Hegel, the visionary writings of William Blake, the Anthroposophical thought of Owen Barfield, and adapted aspects of Mircea Eliade's view of the sacred and the profane.

Source:
en.wikipedia.org...



Prof. Altizer's contentions raised a firesorm of controversy and made it an (at the time) quite famous Time Magazine cover:

For more information:

Wiki Article on Altizer:
en.wikipedia.org...
The famed Time Magazine article on the topic from 1956:
www.time.com...
Photo of a Time Magazine cover form 1966, which in itself proved controversial and provocative:
img.timeinc.net...

I do not wish to turn this into a typical punch-and-judy show "athiests versus believers" thread, of which the internet is alread chock-a-block, and which bore me beyond tears. I just think its an unusual, provocative, radical, and once-influenctial strain of thought that has largely been forgotten and deserves a bit of mulling over, whether you love it or hate it.

So that's the guy who developed this! Good thread.

The thought has always fascinated me, if for none other than a poetic reason. I do believe in God, but I don't think "God" ever really had life, if God dies I'd venture so does everything else. But that's just me.

I remember this from the 60's. Oh, how my mom ranted against this idea!
And, later, when John Lennon proclaimed that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus! Yikes! She decided that John Lennon was considering himself to be God or something. She has a burning hatred for this guy ever since. heh. Is God dead? I dunno. I don't think so. But, then, I am more in line with the ideas of Deists, like Thomas Jefferson, or so from what I have read by him and of him. God, or Creator, or Universe, whatever anyone wants to name such a being, set things in motion and that's it. No intervention.

What is, is.

Why do people have problems understanding this? Well, maybe it's not so much understanding, as it is accepting that what is...........is.