"God is Dead" (German: „Gott ist tot“
; also known as the Death of God) is a widely
quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche. Nietzsche used the phrase in a
figurative sense, to express the idea that
the Enlightenment had "killed" the possibility
of belief in God or any gods having ever existed.
Others, such as proponents of the strongest
form of the Death of God theology have used
the phrase in a literal sense, meaning that
the Christian God who existed at one point,
has ceased to exist.
The phrase first appeared in Nietzsche's 1882
collection The Gay Science (Die fröhliche
Wissenschaft, also translated as "The Joyful
Pursuit of Knowledge and Understanding").
However, it is most famously associated with
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach
Zarathustra), which is most responsible for
making the phrase popular. Other philosophers
had previously discussed the concept,
including Philipp Mainländer and Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel.
== Discussion by Hegel ==
Discourses of a "death of God" in German culture
appear as early as the 17th century and originally
referred to Lutheran theories of atonement.
The phrase "God is dead" appears in the hymn
"Ein Trauriger Grabgesang" ("A mournful dirge)
by Johann von Rist. Contemporary historians
believe that 19th-century German idealist
philosophers, especially those associated
with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, are responsible
for removing the specifically Christian resonance
of the phrase and associating it with secular
philosophical and sociological theories.Although
the statement and its meaning are attributed
to Nietzsche, Hegel had discussed the concept
of the death of God, in his Phenomenology
of Spirit where he considers the death of
God to "Not be seen as anything but an easily
recognized part of the usual Christian cycle
of redemption". Later on Hegel writes about
the great pain of knowing that God is dead
"The pure concept, however, or infinity, as
the abyss of nothingness in which all being
sinks, must characterize the infinite pain,
which previously was only in culture historically
and as the feeling on which rests modern religion,
the feeling that God Himself is dead, (the
feeling which was uttered by Pascal, though
only empirically, in his saying: Nature is
such that it marks everywhere, both in and
outside of man, a lost God), purely as a phase,
but also as no more than just a phase, of
the highest idea."Hegel's student Richard
Rothe, in his 1837 theological text Die Anfänge
der christlichen Kirche und ihrer Verfassung,
appears to be one of the first philosophers
to associate the idea of a death of God with
the sociological theory of secularization.
== Role in the philosophy of Philipp Mainländer
==
Before Nietzsche, the concept was popularized
in philosophy by the German philosopher Philipp
Mainländer.It was while reading Mainländer,
that Nietzsche explicitly writes to have parted
ways with Schopenhauer. In Mainländer’s
more than 200 pages long criticism of Schopenhauer’s
metaphysics, he argues against one cosmic
unity behind the world, and champions a real
multiplicity of wills struggling with each
other for existence. Yet, the interconnection
and the unitary movement of the world, which
are the reasons that lead philosophers to
pantheism, are undeniable. They do indeed
lead to a unity, but this may not be at the
expense of a unity in the world that undermines
the empirical reality of the world. It is
therefore declared to be dead.
Now we have the right to give this being the
well-known name that always designates what
no power of imagination, no flight of the
boldest fantasy, no intently devout heart,
no abstract thinking however profound, no
enraptured and transported spirit has ever
attained: God. But this basic unity is of
the past; it no longer is. It has, by changing
its being, totally and completely shattered
itself. God has died and his death was the
life of the world.
== Nietzsche's formulation ==
The idea is stated in "The Madman" as follows:
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?
But the best known passage is at the end of
part 2 of Zarathustra's Prolog, where after
beginning his allegorical journey Zarathustra
encounters an aged ascetic who expresses misanthropy
and love of God:
When Zarathustra heard these words, he saluted
the saint and said "What should I have to
give you! But let me go quickly that I take
nothing from you!" And thus they parted from
one another, the old man and Zarathustra,
laughing as two boys laugh.But when Zarathustra
was alone, he spoke thus to his heart: "Could
it be possible! This old saint has not heard
in his forest that God is dead!"
== Explanation ==
Nietzsche used the phrase to sum up the effect
and consequence that the Age of Enlightenment
had had on the centrality of the concept of
God within Western European civilization,
which had been essentially Christian in character
since the later Roman Empire. The Enlightenment
had brought about the triumph of scientific
rationality over sacred revelation; the rise
of philosophical materialism and Naturalism
that to all intents and purposes had dispensed
with the belief in or role of God in human
affairs and the destiny of the world.
Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this
"Death of God" represented for existing moral
assumptions in Europe as they existed within
the context of traditional Christian belief.
"When one gives up the Christian faith, one
pulls the right to Christian morality out
from under one's feet. This morality is by
no means self-evident... By breaking one main
concept out of Christianity, the faith in
God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary
remains in one's hands." This is why in "The
Madman", a passage which primarily addresses
nontheists (especially atheists), the problem
is to retain any system of values in the absence
of a divine order.
The Enlightenment's conclusion of the "Death
of God" gave rise to the proposition that
humans - and Western Civilization as a whole
- could no longer believe in a divinely ordained
moral order. This death of God will lead,
Nietzsche said, not only to the rejection
of a belief of cosmic or physical order but
also to a rejection of absolute values themselves
— to the rejection of belief in an objective
and universal moral law, binding upon all
individuals. In this manner, the loss of an
absolute basis for morality leads to nihilism.
This nihilism is that for which Nietzsche
worked to find a solution by re-evaluating
the foundations of human values.
Nietzsche believed that the majority of people
did not recognize this death out of the deepest-seated
fear or angst. Therefore, when the death did
begin to become widely acknowledged, people
would despair and nihilism would become rampant.
=== Nietzsche and Heidegger ===
Martin Heidegger understood this part of Nietzsche's
philosophy by looking at it as death of metaphysics.
In his view, Nietzsche's words can only be
understood as referring not to a particular
theological or anthropological view but rather
to the end of philosophy itself. Philosophy
has, in Heidegger's words, reached its maximum
potential as metaphysics and Nietzsche's words
warn of its demise and that of any metaphysical
world view. If metaphysics is dead, Heidegger
warns, that is because from its inception
that was its fate.
=== Nietzsche and others ===
Paul Tillich as well as Richard Schacht were
influenced by the writings of Nietzsche and
especially of his phrase "God is dead."
William Hamilton wrote the following about
Nietzsche's view: For the most part Altizer
prefers mystical to ethical language in solving
the problem of the death of God, or, as he
puts it, in mapping out the way from the profane
to the sacred. This combination of Kierkegaard
and Eliade makes rather rough reading, but
his position at the end is a relatively simple
one. Here is an important summary statement
of his views: If theology must now accept
a dialectical vocation, it must learn the
full meaning of Yes-saying and No-saying;
it must sense the possibility of a Yes which
can become a No, and of a No which can become
a Yes; in short, it must look forward to a
dialectical coincidentia oppositorum. Let
theology rejoice that faith is once again
a "scandal," and not simply a moral scandal,
an offense to man’s pride and righteousness,
but, far more deeply, an ontological scandal;
for eschatological faith is directed against
the deepest reality of what we know as history
and the cosmos. Through Nietzsche’s vision
of Eternal Recurrence we can sense the ecstatic
liberation that can be occasioned by the collapse
of the transcendence of Being, by the death
of God ... and, from Nietzsche’s portrait
of Jesus, theology must learn of the power
of an eschatological faith that can liberate
the believer from what to the contemporary
sensibility is the inescapable reality of
history. But liberation must finally be effected
by affirmation. ... ( See "Theology and the
Death of God," in this volume, pp. 95-111.
=== New possibilities ===
Nietzsche believed there could be positive
possibilities for humans without God. Relinquishing
the belief in God opens the way for human
creative abilities to fully develop. The Christian
God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the
way, so human beings might stop turning their
eyes toward a supernatural realm and begin
to acknowledge the value of this world.
Nietzsche uses the metaphor of an open sea,
which can be both exhilarating and terrifying.
The people who eventually learn to create
their lives anew will represent a new stage
in human existence, the Übermensch — i.e.
the personal archetype who, through the conquest
of their own nihilism, themselves become a
sort of mythical hero. The "death of God"
is the motivation for Nietzsche's last (uncompleted)
philosophical project, the "revaluation of
all values".
=== Nietzsche's voice ===
Although Nietzsche puts the statement "God
is Dead" into the mouth of a "madman" in The
Gay Science, he also uses the phrase in his
own voice in sections 108 and 343 of the same
book. In the madman's passage, the man is
described as running through a marketplace
shouting, "I seek God! I seek God!" He arouses
some amusement; no one takes him seriously.
Maybe he took an ocean voyage? Lost his way
like a little child? Maybe he's afraid of
us (non-believers) and is hiding? — much
laughter. Frustrated, the madman smashes his
lantern on the ground, crying out that "God
is dead, and we have killed him, you and I!"
"But I have come too soon," he immediately
realizes, as his detractors of a minute before
stare in astonishment: people cannot yet see
that they have killed God. He goes on to say:
This prodigious event is still on its way,
still wandering; it has not yet reached the
ears of men. Lightning and thunder require
time, the light of the stars requires time,
deeds, though done, still require time to
be seen and heard. This deed is still more
distant from them than the most distant stars
— and yet they have done it themselves.
Earlier in the book (section 108), Nietzsche
wrote "God is Dead; but given the way of men,
there may still be caves for thousands of
years in which his shadow will be shown. And
we — we still have to vanquish his shadow,
too." The protagonist in Thus Spoke Zarathustra
also speaks the words, commenting to himself
after visiting a hermit who, every day, sings
songs and lives to glorify his god as noted
above.
What is more, Zarathustra later refers not
only to the death of God, but states: "Dead
are all the Gods". It is not just one morality
that has died, but all of them, to be replaced
by the life of the Übermensch, the new man:
'DEAD ARE ALL THE GODS: NOW DO WE DESIRE THE
OVERMAN TO LIVE.'
== Death of God theological movement ==
The cover of the April 8, 1966 edition of
Time and the accompanying article concerned
a movement in American theology that arose
in the 1960s known as the "death of God".
Although theologians since Nietzsche had occasionally
used the phrase "God is dead" to reflect increasing
unbelief in God, the concept rose to prominence
in the late 1950s and 1960s, before waning
again. The main proponents of this theology
included the Christian theologians Gabriel
Vahanian, Paul van Buren, William Hamilton,
John Robinson, Thomas J. J. Altizer and John
D. Caputo, and the rabbi Richard L. Rubenstein.
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsches Wort ‚Gott
ist tot‘ (1943) translated as "The Word
of Nietzsche: 'God Is Dead,'" in Holzwege,
edited and translated by Julian Young and
Kenneth Haynes. Cambridge University Press,
2002.
Kaufmann, Walter. Nietzsche: Philosopher,
Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1974.
Roberts, Tyler T. Contesting Spirit: Nietzsche,
Affirmation, Religion. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1998.
=== Precursors to "Death of God" theology
===
Benson, Bruce E. Pious Nietzsche: Decadence
and Dionysian Faith. Bloomington: Indiana
UP, 2008.
Holub, Robert C. Friedrich Nietzsche. New
York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.
Magnus, Bernd, and Kathleen Higgins. The Cambridge
Companion to Nietzsche. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 1996.
Pfeffer, Rose. Nietzsche: Disciple of Dionysus.
Canbury: Associated University Presses, 1972.
Welshon, Rex. The Philosophy of Nietzsche.
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2004.
=== "Death of God" theology ===
Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Gospel of Christian
Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966).
Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton,
Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1966).
Bernard Murchland, ed., The Meaning of the
Death of God (New York: Random House, 1967).
Gabriel Vahanian, The Death of God (New York:
George Braziller, 1961).
John D. Caputo, Gianni Vattimo, After the
Death of God, edited by Jeffrey W. Robbins
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
Hamilton, William, "A Quest for the Post-Historical
Jesus," (London, New York: Continuum International
Publishing Group, 1994). ISBN 978-0-8264-0641-5
== External links ==
John M. Frame, "Death of God Theology"
The Joyful Wisdom, The Madman
