HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer (May 28, 1927 – November 28, 2018) was an American
university professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...
, religious scholar, and
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
, noted for his incorporation of
Death of God theology Death of God theology refers to a range of ideas by various theologians and philosophers that try to account for the rise of secularity and abandonment of traditional beliefs in God. They posit that God has either ceased to exist or in some w ...
and
Hegelian dialectic Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...
al philosophy into his body of work. He regarded his philosophical theology as also being grounded in the works of
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
and considered his theology to have come into its own with his extended study of Blake's radical visionary thinking: ''The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake'' (1967); indeed he regarded himself as the first and only fully Blakean theologian.


Education

Altizer was born in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, on May 28, 1927, and grew up with two sisters in
Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...
. He attended St. John's College in
Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...
, and the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, from which he received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. His 1951 master's thesis examined the concepts of nature and grace in
Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
. His doctoral dissertation in 1955, under the direction by historian of religions
Joachim Wach Joachim Ernst Adolphe Felix Wach (; January 25, 1898 – August 27, 1955) was a German religious scholar from Chemnitz, who emphasized a distinction between the Religious Studies (Religionswissenschaft) and the philosophy of religion. Wa ...
, examined
Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
's understanding of religion. After receiving his doctoral degree, he sought ordination as an Episcopal priest, but failed the psychiatric test. He relates that shortly before this, he had a terrifying experience: "I suddenly awoke and became truly
possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...
and experienced an epiphany of Satan which I have never been able fully to deny, an experience in which I could actually feel Satan consuming me, absorbing me into his very being, as though this was the deepest possible initiation and bonding, and the deepest and yet most horrible union." He adds that it was perhaps the deepest experience of his life, and one that he believes "profoundly affected my vocation as a theologian, and even my theological work itself."Patti Maguire Armstrong
Was This Noted Time Magazine Writer Possessed by Satan?
''National Catholic Register, '' January 3, 2019.
He was assistant professor of religion at
Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832 by several Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, it enrolls nearly 900 students. The college offers an undergraduate liberal arts cu ...
in
Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville is a city in Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The city is the county seat of Montgomery County, the only cha ...
, from 1954 to 1956. He went on to become an associate professor of Bible and religion at
Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
from 1956 to 1968. He was professor of Religious Studies at the
Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
from 1968 to 1996. Until his death in 2018, he was Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the university.


"Death of God" controversy

During Altizer's time at Emory, two ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine articles featured his religious views—in the October 1965 and April 1966 issues. The latter issue, published at
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
time, put the question on its cover in bold red letters on a plain black background: " Is God Dead?" Altizer repeatedly claimed that the scorn, outcry, and even
death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a de ...
s he subsequently received were misplaced. 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 Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
—whose
crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
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 Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
thought of
Owen Barfield Arthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was a British philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings. Life Barfield was born in London, to Elizabeth (née Shoults; 1860–1940) and Arthur Edward Barfield (1864 ...
, and aspects of
Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanians, Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who establ ...
's studies 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 Gabriel Vahanian (in Armenian Գաբրիէլ Վահանեան; 24 January 1927 – 30 August 2012) was a French Protestant Christian theologian who was most remembered for his pioneering work in the theology of the "death of God" movement withi ...
, William Hamilton, and Paul Van Buren, and also the rabbi Richard Rubenstein. Those religious scholars collectively formed a loose network of thinkers who held different versions of the death of God. Altizer also entered into formal critical debates with the orthodox Lutheran
John Warwick Montgomery John Warwick Montgomery (born October 18, 1931) is a lawyer, professor, Lutheran theologian, and author living in France. He was born in Warsaw, New York, United States. From 2014 to 2017, he was Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at ...
, and the
Christian countercult movement The Christian countercult movement or the Christian anti-cult movement is a social movement among certain Protestant evangelical and fundamentalist and other Christian ministries ("discernment ministries") and individual activists who oppose ...
apologist Walter Martin. The conservative 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'' (2003), Altizer examined the notion of
evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
. He presented evil as the absence of
will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
, but not separate from God. Orthodox Christianity—considered
nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...
by
Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
—named evil and separated it from good without thoroughly examining its nature. However, the
immanence The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheis ...
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. Beginning in 1996 Altizer lived in the
Pocono Mountains The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. His 2006 memoir is entitled ''Living the Death of God''.


See also

*
Christian atheism Christian atheism is a form of Christianity that rejects the theistic claims of Christianity, but draws its beliefs and practices from Jesus' life and teachings as recorded in the New Testament Gospels and other sources. Christian atheism ta ...
*


Critical assessment

*
''The Death of the Death of God''
udiotapes debate between Thomas Alltizer and John W. Montgomery at the Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, February 24, 1967. * * * * * Schoonenberg, Piet, "The Transcendence of God, Part I," Transcendence and Immanence, Reconstruction in the Light of Process Thinking, Festschrift in Honour of Joseph Papin, ed. Joseph Armenti, St. Meinrad: The Abbey Press, 1972: 157–166. * Schoonenberg, Piet, "From Transcendence to Immanence, Part II," Wisdom and Knowledge, Essays in Honour of Joseph Papin, ed. Joseph Armenti, Villanova University Press, 1976: 273–282. * * * * * * * * * *


Bibliography

* ''Oriental Mysticism and Biblical Eschatology'' (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961). * ''Mircea Eliade and the Dialectic of the Sacred'' (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963; Westport: Greenwood, 1975). * ''Radical Theology and the Death of God,'' co-authored with William Hamilton (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968). * ''The Gospel of Christian Atheism'' (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966). * ''The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake'' (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1967; Aurora, CO: Davies Group, 2000). * ''Toward A New Christianity: Readings in the Death of God'', ed. Altizer (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967). * ''The Descent into Hell'' (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970). * ''The Self-Embodiment of God'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1977). * ''Total Presence: The Language of Jesus and the Language of Today'' (New York: Seabury, 1980). * ''History as Apocalypse'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985). * ''Genesis and Apocalypse: A Theological Voyage Toward Authentic Christianity'' (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1990). * ''The Genesis of God'' (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993). * ''The Contemporary Jesus'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997). * ''The New Gospel of Christian Atheism'' (Aurora: Davies Group, 2002). * ''Godhead and the Nothing'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003). * ''Living the Death of God: A Theological Memoir'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006). * ''The Call to Radical Theology'', ed. Lissa McCullough (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012). * ''The Apocalyptic Trinity'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
Thomas J. J. Altizer Comprehensive Bibliography
— Listing books, articles, essays, book reviews, and related writings.

Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries — The Thomas J. J. Altizer Papers contain correspondence (1960–1970); typescript books and page proofs; published articles and essays; three audio tapes; and four scrapbooks. Much of the correspondence pertains to the "death of God" movement of the 1960s, of which Altizer was a leader. Arranged in four series: Audiotape recordings: three tapes with recordings of appearances at colleges and on radio programs. Correspondence: primarily responses to Altizer's "death of God" theology representing a wide variety of opinions from grade-school children to learned theologians. Printed material: essays and miscellany. Writings: books, essays, and magazine articles by Altizer. There are no access restrictions on this material.


See also

* Theodicy#Essential kenosis


References


External links

* Excerpt fro
''Radical Theology and the Death of God''
* Thomas Altizer

''Journal for Christian Theological Research'' 2, no. 2 (1997).

''Emory Magazine'', Autumn 2006.

Emory History.

''Time Magazine'', October 22, 1965.
''Review Gospel of Christian Atheism''
*

'. '' ttps://web.archive.org/web/20200616032708/http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/altizer.htm Archived on June 16 2020' from the
Wayback Machine
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Altizer, Thomas J. J. 1927 births 2018 deaths American Christian theologians American memoirists Atheist theologians Death of God theologians Emory University faculty Lay theologians St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) alumni Stony Brook University faculty 20th-century American theologians 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American theologians University of Chicago alumni Wabash College faculty Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts