Christian atheists
Encyclopedia
Christian atheism is an ideology
in which the belief in the god of Christianity is rejected or absent but the moral teachings of Jesus
are followed.
, lists these four common beliefs:
, a Death of God theologian, the word God itself is “either meaningless or misleading”. He contends that it is impossible to think about God. Van Buren says that
Most Christian atheists believe that God never existed, but there are a few who believe in the death of God literally. Thomas J. J. Altizer
is a well known Christian atheist who is known for his literal approach to the death of God. He often speaks of God's death as a redemptive event. In his book The Gospel of Christian Atheism he speaks of how
Colin Lyas, a Philosophy lecturer at Lancaster University
, stated that
He believed that orthodox Christianity no longer had any meaning to people because it did not discuss Christianity within the context of contemporary theology. Christian atheists want to be completely separated from most orthodox Christian beliefs and biblical traditions. Altizer states that a faith will not be completely pure if it is open to modern culture. This faith “can never identify itself with an ecclesiastical tradition or with a given doctrinal or ritual form.” He goes on to say that faith cannot “have any final assurance as to what it means to be a Christian”. Altizer said, “We must not, he says, seek for the sacred by saying ‘no’ to the radical profanity of our age, but by saying ‘yes’ to it”. They see religions which withdraw from the world as moving away from truth. This is part of the reason why they see the existence of God as counter progressive. Altizer wrote of God as the enemy to man because mankind could never reach its fullest potential while God existed. He went on to state that “to cling to the Christian God in our time is to evade the human situation of our century and to renounce the inevitable suffering which is its lot”.
Jesus, although not seen as divine, is still a central feature of Christian atheism. Most Christian atheists think of Jesus as a wise
and good man, accepting his moral teachings but rejecting the idea of his divinity. Hamilton said that to the Christian atheist, Jesus is not really the foundation of faith; instead he is a “place to be, a standpoint”. Christian atheists look to Jesus as an example of what a Christian should be, but they do not see him as a god.
Hamilton wrote that following Jesus means being “alongside the neighbor, being for him”, and that to follow Jesus means to be human, to help other humans, and to further mankind.
(PKN) and several other smaller denominations of the Netherlands, 1 in 6 clergy are either agnostic or atheist. A reverend of the PKN, Klaas Hendrikse has described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and said that Jesus may have never existed.
in which the culture, traditions, rituals and norms of Catholicism
are accepted but the idea of the existence of God is rejected.
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
in which the belief in the god of Christianity is rejected or absent but the moral teachings of Jesus
Ministry of Jesus
In the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
are followed.
Beliefs
Thomas Ogletree, Frederick Marquand Professor of Ethics and Religious Studies at Yale Divinity SchoolYale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
, lists these four common beliefs:
- The assertion of the unreality of God for our age, including the understandings of God which have been a part of traditional Christian theologyTheologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
- The insistence upon coming to grips with contemporary cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
as a necessary feature of responsible theological work - Varying degrees and forms of alienationAlienationAlienation may refer to:*Alienation , the legal transfer of title of ownership to another party*"Alienation", the medical term for splitting apart of the faculties of the mind...
from the church as it is now constituted - Recognition of the centrality of the person of JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in theological reflection
God's existence
According to Paul van BurenPaul van Buren
Paul Matthews van Buren was a Christian theologian and author. An ordained Episcopalian priest he was a Professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia for 22 years....
, a Death of God theologian, the word God itself is “either meaningless or misleading”. He contends that it is impossible to think about God. Van Buren says that
“we cannot identify anything which will count for or against the truth of our statements concerning ‘God’”.
Most Christian atheists believe that God never existed, but there are a few who believe in the death of God literally. Thomas J. J. Altizer
Thomas J. J. Altizer
Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer is a radical theologian who incorporated Friedrich Nietzsche's conception of the "death of God" into his teachings.- Education :...
is a well known Christian atheist who is known for his literal approach to the death of God. He often speaks of God's death as a redemptive event. In his book The Gospel of Christian Atheism he speaks of how
“every man today who is open to experience knows that God is absent, but only the Christian knows that God is dead, that the death of God is a final and irrevocable event, and that God’s death has actualized in our history a new and liberated humanity”.
Dealing with culture
Theologians including Altizer and Lyas looked at the scientific, empirical culture of today and tried to find religion’s place in it. In Altizer’s words,“No longer can faith and the world exist in mutual isolation... the radical Christian condemns all forms of faith that are disengaged with the world”.He goes on to say that our response to atheism should be one of “acceptance and affirmation”.
Colin Lyas, a Philosophy lecturer at Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...
, stated that
“Christian atheists are united also in the belief that any satisfactory answer to these problems must be an answer that will make life tolerable in this world, here and now and which will direct attention to the social and other problems of this life”.
Separation from the church
Altizer has said that“the radical Christian... believes that the ecclesiasticalEcclesiologyToday, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
tradition has ceased to be Christian”.
He believed that orthodox Christianity no longer had any meaning to people because it did not discuss Christianity within the context of contemporary theology. Christian atheists want to be completely separated from most orthodox Christian beliefs and biblical traditions. Altizer states that a faith will not be completely pure if it is open to modern culture. This faith “can never identify itself with an ecclesiastical tradition or with a given doctrinal or ritual form.” He goes on to say that faith cannot “have any final assurance as to what it means to be a Christian”. Altizer said, “We must not, he says, seek for the sacred by saying ‘no’ to the radical profanity of our age, but by saying ‘yes’ to it”. They see religions which withdraw from the world as moving away from truth. This is part of the reason why they see the existence of God as counter progressive. Altizer wrote of God as the enemy to man because mankind could never reach its fullest potential while God existed. He went on to state that “to cling to the Christian God in our time is to evade the human situation of our century and to renounce the inevitable suffering which is its lot”.
The centrality of Jesus
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
and good man, accepting his moral teachings but rejecting the idea of his divinity. Hamilton said that to the Christian atheist, Jesus is not really the foundation of faith; instead he is a “place to be, a standpoint”. Christian atheists look to Jesus as an example of what a Christian should be, but they do not see him as a god.
Hamilton wrote that following Jesus means being “alongside the neighbor, being for him”, and that to follow Jesus means to be human, to help other humans, and to further mankind.
Protestantism
In the Protestant Church in the NetherlandsProtestant Church in the Netherlands
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million , it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of...
(PKN) and several other smaller denominations of the Netherlands, 1 in 6 clergy are either agnostic or atheist. A reverend of the PKN, Klaas Hendrikse has described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and said that Jesus may have never existed.
Roman Catholic
Catholic atheism is a beliefBelief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
in which the culture, traditions, rituals and norms of Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
are accepted but the idea of the existence of God is rejected.
See also
- Asimov's Guide to the BibleAsimov's Guide to the BibleAsimov's Guide to the Bible is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes, covering the Old Testament in 1967 and the New Testament in 1969. He combined them into a single 1296-page volume in 1981...
- Christian radicalism
- Cultural ChristianCultural ChristianA cultural Christian is a secular or irreligious individual who still significantly identifies with Christian culture. The term is used, for example, by atheist Richard Dawkins in reference to himself...
- Death of God Theology
- Don CupittDon CupittDon Cupitt is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He is an Anglican priest, heretic and an emeritus professor of the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and commentator...
- Jefferson BibleJefferson BibleThe Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was Thomas Jefferson's effort to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by...
- Jesuism
- Nontheist Friends
- Nontheistic religionsNontheistic religionsNontheistic religions are traditions of thought within religions, some otherwise aligned with theism, others not, in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices...
- Robert JensenRobert JensenRobert William Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin College of Communication. He joined the faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota...
- Robert M. PriceRobert M. PriceRobert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...
- Thorkild GrosbøllThorkild GrosbøllThorkild Grosbøll is a former parish priest in the Church of Denmark. In the early 2000s he achieved a lot of media attention in Denmark for publicly stating that he does not believe in an interventionist creator God....
Further reading
- Hamilton, William, "A Quest for the Post-Historical Jesus," (London, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1994). ISBN 978-0826406415