The Gospel of Christian Atheism by Thomas J. J. Altizer
"The Gospel of Christian Atheism" by Thomas J. J. Altizer presents a provocative rethinking of Christian theology, proposing a radical departure from traditional beliefs about God and Christ. Altizer argues that conventional ecclesiastical structures are outdated and fail to address contemporary spiritual needs, advocating for a new Christian understanding rooted in hope and the human experience. He suggests that the "death of God" symbolizes a transformative opportunity rather than despair, emphasizing that this concept allows for a more immediate and embodied relationship with Christ, whom he views as the evolving manifestation of divine love.
The text critiques institutional Christianity for its historical fixation on a transcendent God, which Altizer believes has led to alienation and repression among believers. Instead, he calls for a recognition of Jesus as the fully present and incarnate Word, encouraging Christians to embrace a faith that is alive in the present moment. Through this lens, the concepts of sin and guilt are re-evaluated, with Altizer asserting that true forgiveness can be realized by overcoming the lingering impacts of a judgmental, remote deity. Overall, the book outlines a vision for a radical Christian identity that transcends traditional boundaries, challenging readers to consider the implications of a Christianity that is rooted in the here and now, rather than in an abstracted past.
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The Gospel of Christian Atheism by Thomas J. J. Altizer
First published: Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Theology
Core issue(s): Alienation from God; atheism; God; Jesus Christ; sin and sinners
Overview
In the introductory matter to The Gospel of Christian Atheism, Thomas J. J. Altizer claims that ecclesiastical traditions, which he considers archaic, are inadequate to meet the spiritual needs of Christians. As he sees it, the radical challenge is to find a new Christian life and theology that are grounded in hope. To accomplish this, it is necessary to turn away from the traditional God and to focus instead on Christ in this world. Although it sounds almost paradoxical, the death of God is a message of “good news.” Altizer faults institutional Christianity for its priestly, legalistic, and dogmatic interpretation of the Bible and states that contemporary Christianity is repressive and out of touch with the human condition: “Ecclesiastical tradition has ceased to be Christian and is now alive only in a demonic and repressive form.” For Altizer, what is needed is a “total union with Jesus or the Word” and a repudiation of the “God who is the sovereign Creator and the transcendent Lord.”
In his first chapter, Altizer discusses the incompatibility between a “primordial Christian God” and an “incarnate or kenotic [evolving] Christ.” When Christ is born, God becomes incarnate in him and no longer exists in his primordial form. God is dead, and the unfallen world no longer exists, so that a quest to return to that earlier state is doomed. The radical Christian rejects the God who alone is God and renounces all attachment to the past. Chapter 2 describes how Christianity betrayed Jesus when it fixed him in time and made him the eternal and cosmic Word, which made him lose his immediacy and his evolving nature. The radical Christian’s Jesus operates in the world as the union of God and man and is himself love. The transcendent God is dead and the kenotic Jesus lives.
In the third chapter, Altizer discusses the Christians’ alienation from their theological heritage, which is expressed in dead and archaic language, and expresses the need for a wholly new form of speech, one not tied to the primordial sacred and the authority of the Church. Because it is fixed on the transcendent past, contemporary theology is not amenable to the original thinking and imaginative vision needed for the world of the present. What is needed is Jesus Christ, the Word becoming embodied in history, a Word “that is penetrating the present or a transcendent Word becoming immanent.” In other words, the transcendent God becomes Jesus (rather than the other way around), the god who became fully incarnate and immanent. God has, as Altizer puts it, negated himself or emptied himself of his sovereignty and transcendence into Jesus.
In the fourth chapter, Altizer explains why this self-negation has to occur. For him, the Christian church has made God the “most alien, most distant, most oppressive deity in history,” a God who, once emptied of life and power, “recedes into alien and lifeless nothingness.” Since the contemporary world is in the “twilight of Christendom,” the news that God is dead Altizer regards as a “confession of faith,” not a cause for pessimism.
He sees the Incarnation and the Crucifixion as evidence of a forward movement from transcendence into immanence, as spirit evolves into flesh. This movement does not stop with the Crucifixion, assuming a final form, but rather extends beyond it in a continual metamorphosis. Radical Christians can participate in that forward movement and free themselves from the repression of the past.
Altizer’s last chapter, “A Wager,” focuses on how Christians are to respond to Christ. According to Altizer, the first heresy was the identification of the Church with the body of Christ, thereby separating the body of Christ from the body of humanity, leaving a chasm between the two. Altizer blames this separation for the militant Church’s desire to conquer the world, bringing life and movement under the control of the inhuman authority of the aloof Creator and Judge. Altizer opposes this course of action, instead rejecting the life of the transcendent past. The choice for modern Christians is between giving up the life and energy of a world that is distinct from the Church’s notion of Christ and believing in a completely incarnate Christ. For Altizer, the kenotic, transforming Jesus Christ is always the same, evolving in the real world as the Word. The future of the radical Christian is bright:
Yet the Christian who wagers on the death of God can be freed from the alien power of all moral law, just as he can be liberated from the threat of external moral judgment, and released from the burden of a transcendent source of guilt.
Altizer concludes by advocating “yes-saying” (derived from Friedrich Nietzsche): affirming life’s real and immediate experience and choosing immanence over transcendence. His last sentence restates the optimism of the God-is-dead movement:
Thus, ultimately the wager of the radical Christian is simply a wager upon the full and actual presence of the Christ who is totally incarnate love.
Christian Themes
Altizer draws upon the work of William Blake, the Romantic poet and illustrator, to discuss the idea that the biblical Creator and Lord is actually Satan. This “blasphemous” notion is the foundation for Blake’s Milton: A Poem (1804-1808) and Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804-1820). Altizer cites apocalyptic writers who believe that Satan or the Antichrist appears only when he falls or dies, and at his death the world of darkness that characterizes his reign will end, freeing man from all tyrannical and repressive power. When the death of God (Satan) occurs, a new “aeon” of Christianity is possible. When God empties himself, negates himself, his “residue” becomes Satan, who then must “undergo a final metamorphosis into the eschatological epiphany of Christ.” This notion squares with Altizer’s other comments regarding how the death of God will lead to a Christ-centered Christianity, but associating God with Satan is such a sensational notion that it was one of the reasons that Altizer’s book encountered such vitriolic opposition among fundamentalists.
A similar situation exists with Altizer’s ideas about the forgiveness of sin. For Altizer, sin derives from the idea of a natural and universal moral law or from an abject and guilty humanity facing a transcendent Lord who is Creator and Judge. This isolates sin from grace, making it impossible to realize the forgiveness of sin, which Christ used in his ministry. Citing Paul’s comments about the old covenant, Altizer concludes that the God of judgment was abolished by the grace of God who died on Calvary. Nevertheless, Christians are plagued by their guilt, which should have been erased through Christ. Faith must deny the consciousness of sin and overcome the self-alienation that arises from guilt, a holdover from a belief in a transcendental God. The forgiveness of sin then becomes a forward step in the ongoing process of redemption.
Sources for Further Study
Cobb, John B., ed. The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970. Responses to Altizer’s theology from Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish theologians; critiques from Zen and “process theology” writers; and Altizer’s responses to those remarks. Includes an essay from Mircea Eliade, who influenced Altizer, and a bibliography of Altizer’s writings.
Greenfield, Trevor. An Introduction to Radical Theology: The Death and Resurrection of God. New York: O Books, 2006. Overview of the ideas of Altizer and Hamilton, and a response that reestablishes the primacy of the transcendent God as Judge and Creator.
McCullough, Lissa, and Brian Schroeder, eds. Thinking Through the Death of God: A Critical Companion to Thomas J. J. Altizer. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004. Excellent collection of essays, both positive and negative, on Altizer, valuable because many of the essays were written after the early controversy about the death of God.
Ogletree, Thomas W. The Death of God Controversy: A Constructive Explanation and Evaluation of the Writings of Thomas J. J. Altizer, William Hamilton, Paul Van Buren. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1966. Discusses Altizer’s debts to Friedrich Nietzsche, G. W. F. Hegel, and William Blake, his coverage of the relationship between Eastern religions and radical Christianity, and his tendency not to discuss the role of God’s grace.