DEATH OF GOD MOVEMENT

radical Christian theological school, mainly Protestant, that arose in the United States during the 1960s, evoking prolonged attention, response, and controversy. Though thinkers of many varied viewpoints have been grouped in this school, basic to practically all of them is the idea that belief in God is impossible or meaningless in the modern world, and that fulfillment is to be found in secular life. Thomas J.J. Altizer, best known of the Death of God theologians, asserted that the traditional Judeo-Christian God had actually died in the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and henceforth entered into the processes of the secular, historical world. Paul Van Buren contended that talk about God is linguistic nonsense, because it purports to deal with a transcendent reality, about which meaningful talk is no longer possible. William Hamilton held that the absence or death of God made it possible for people to assume full responsibility and activity in the work and love of this world, freed from dependence on a providential Father in heaven; he also centred on Jesus as the model person and still Lord for all Christians. Gabriel Vahanian, actually a neo-Calvinist rather than a radical theologian, held that the Death of God was both a religious and cultural event, occurring because the (essentially pagan) mythological terms in which the Christian faith had traditionally been expressed became obsolete in a modern scientific society. He looked forward to the reappearance of faith in a truly transcendent Godnot the false image of cultural Christianity. Although the term Death of God fell into disuse within a decade, its essential drives and concerns continued in small circles of self-styled radical theologians.