1. Death of God
Time magazine cover, 1966

2. Do the gods die? Historically, culturally, yes. “Great Pan is Dead”
Christianity – God dies; what/who dies?

3. Nietzsche Late 19th century “God is Dead” - Loss of foundations
Broad cultural notion – e.g. Thomas Hardy’s poem “God’s Funeral”
Replacements? - All those isms

4. Death of God Theology
Post WWII context; both within currents of Judaism and Christianity
Thomas J. J. Altizer, Atlanta's Emory University, a Methodist school
Gabriel Vahanian, The Death of God (1961) – critiques what he saw as a facile Christianity (revivalist, evangelical)
Dietrich Bonheoffer – “ a religionless Christianity”
Rabbi Richard Rubenstein – impossible after the Holocaust

5. Atheism Different kinds Religionless religion; God after God
“atheists” and “believers” as two sides of same coin
Christian and Jewish atheism
Religionless religion; God after God
A clearing, a cleansing
God as accusation, God as consolation takes a hit
What remains?
Slavoj Zizek
“Only an atheist can believe”
God in Pain