Thomas J. J. Altizer

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Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer (born September 28, 1927) is a radical theologian who postulated in the early 1960s the "death of God".

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[edit] Education

Altizer was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and attended St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. He was educated at the University of Chicago and graduated with B.A., M.A., and PhD degrees. His master's thesis examined the concepts of nature and grace in St. Augustine. His doctoral dissertation of 1955 examined Carl Gustav Jung's understanding of religion.

He took up a post at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, from 1954 to 1956 where he taught religion. He then became professor of English at Emory University where he taught from 1956 to 1968.

[edit] "Death of God" controversy

While teaching at Emory, Altizer's religious views were featured in two Time magazine articles in 1965 and 1966. The latter issue was published at Easter time, and its cover asked in bold red letters on a plain black background, "Is God Dead?"

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.

In the mid-1960s Altizer was drawn into discussions about his views with other radical Christian theologians such as Gabriel Vahanian, William Hamilton, and Paul Van Buren, and also with the Jewish rabbi Richard Rubenstein. Each of these thinkers appeared to form a loose network of thinkers who held to different versions of the death of God. Altizer also entered into formal critical debates with the evangelical Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery, and the Christian countercult movement apologist Walter Martin. The evangelical theologians faulted Altizer on philosophical, methodological and theological questions, such as his reliance on Hegelian dialectical thought, his idiosyncratic semantic use of theological words, and the interpretative principles he used in understanding Biblical literature.

In Godhead and the Nothing, Altizer examined the notion of evil. He presented evil as the absence of will, but not separate from God. Orthodox Christianity—considered nihilistic by Nietzsche—named evil and separated it from good without thoroughly examining its nature. However, the immanence of the spirit (after Jesus Christ) within the world embraces everything created. The immanence of the spirit is the answer to the nihilistic state that Christianity, according to Nietzsche, was leading the world into. Through the introduction of God in the material world (immanence), the emptying of meaning would cease. No longer would followers be able to dismiss the present world for a transcendent world. They would have to embrace the present completely, and keep meaning in the here and now.

Altizer now lives Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. His memoir is entitled Living the Death of God. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

[edit] Critical assessment

  • Lissa McCullough and Brian Schroeder, (eds.) Thinking Through the Death of God: A Critical Companion to Thomas J.J. Altizer (Albany, NY: SUNY, 2004). ISBN 978-0791462201
  • D.G. Leahy, Foundation: Matter The Body Itself (Albany, NY: SUNY, 1996). ISBN 978-0791420225
  • John B. Cobb, (ed.) The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970)
  • Robert S. Corrington, book review of Genesis and Apocalypse, Theology Today, 49/1 (April 1992).
  • Langdon Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind: The Renewal of God-Language, (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merill, 1969).
  • John Warwick Montgomery, The 'Is God Dead?' Controversy, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966).
  • John Warwick Montgomery, The Altizer-Montgomery Dialogue: A Chapter in the God is Dead Controversy, (Chicago: Intervarsity Press, 1967).
  • John Warwick Montgomery, The Suicide of Christian Theology, (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1970). ISBN 0-87123-521-8
  • The Death of the Death of God [audio-tapes], the debate between Thomas Altizer and John W. Montgomery at the University of Chicago, February 24, 1967.
  • Christopher Rodkey, book review of Thinking Through the Death of God, Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, 6/3 (Fall 2005).

[edit] Bibliography

  • Contemporary Jesus, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997). ISBN 0791433757
  • Descent into Hell, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1970).
  • Genesis and Apocalypse: A Theological Voyage Toward Authentic Christianity, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990). ISBN 0664219322
  • Genesis of God, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993). ISBN 0664219969
  • Godhead and The Nothing, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003). ISBN 0791457958
  • The Gospel of Christian Atheism, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966).
  • History as Apocalypse, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985). ISBN 0887060137
  • Living the Death of God: A Theological Memoir, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006). ISBN 0791467570
  • Mircea Eliade and The Dialectic of the Sacred (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1975). ISBN 0837171962
  • New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake, (Aurora: Davies Group, 2000). ISBN 1888570563
  • New Gospel of Christian Atheism, (Aurora: Davies Group, 2002). ISBN 1888570652
  • Oriental Mysticism and Biblical Eschatology, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961).
  • with William Hamilton, Radical Theology and the Death of God, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968).
  • The Self-Embodiment of God, (New York: Harper & Row, 1977). ISBN 0060601604
  • Total Presence: The Language of Jesus and the Language of Today, (New York: Seabury Press, 1980). ISBN 0816404615
  • (ed). Toward A New Christianity: Readings in the Death of God, (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967).

[edit] External links

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