‘We could do worse as a Religious Society of Friends than to bear witness to the possibility of a vulnerable faith.’ Photo: by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
Back from the death: Uniting theists and non-theists by Michael Saunders
‘We may discover, after the death of God, a God of peace.’
God – or at least a certain image of God – has died for Quaker Meetings. This kind of death was once welcomed by a radical and predominantly Christian theological grouping: the ‘death of God’ movement of the 1960s. It counted among its members such theologians as Thomas JJ Altizer, William Hamilton, and Paul van Buren.
I would like to suggest that the theology that arose from this movement may provide a theological vision for Friends that is neither (traditionally) theist nor (militantly) nontheist. It may offer us a way to live and pray together as Friends – theists and nontheists alike – in the wake of the death of God.
The theism/nontheism debate has been a longstanding one among Friends. For a movement that once claimed to be ‘primitive Christianity revived,’ our anchorage in Christianity (and use of Christian theological grammar) has become a source of controversy within Meetings. In his book A Man That Looks on Glass, Derek Guiton argues against the infiltration of atheism into Quaker Meetings. This infiltration, he suggests, will ultimately result in the withering away of the Quaker spiritual tradition. And yet, his theological vision, which rests on a reappraisal of divine transcendence, and argues for a renewed appreciation of our Christian roots as Friends, neglects the atheism at the heart of Christianity: the moment in which Jesus dies on the cross.
In his God in Our Hands, Graham Shaw, an Anglican Quaker much influenced by the death of God theologians, writes that, ‘As a Christian, I am able to listen to the atheists’ objections to the God of power, because I believe that they were anticipated in the crucifixion of Jesus.’ It is here, then, where God on the cross is revealed to be a God of weakness and peace and not of might and power, that both theist and nontheist Friends can come together.
One consequence of death of God theology was a renewed emphasis on ethics in religious life. The death of God theologians took very seriously Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words, written while he was imprisoned by the Nazis, that ‘Our being Christians today will be limited to two things: prayer and righteous action’. For William Hamilton, death of God theology describes, at its core, a movement from the dense thickets of theological reflection to the simplicity of love. Or, as he writes, ‘We turn from the problems of faith to the reality of love’.
As Quakers, we may adopt a similar posture to that of the death of God theologians. Even as many Friends claim to forgo traditional theological reflection, we must be sensitive. Sometimes, invocations of divine transcendence and mystery (whether in the guise of a metaphysical God of power or a more nebulous understanding of the Light) can obscure the simple and radical imperatives of love, peace, and forgiveness. These were handed down to us from that crucified Nazarene, and it is our responsibility to affirm and make real these imperatives in our lives.
It may be that we have to relinquish certain understandings of God and the Light in order to recover the essentials of love. In so doing, we may find that we are responsible for the creation of the God we worship. God has always been a God of our hearts. (Graham Shaw is quite good on this too, in Can We Worship a God of Our Own Creation?) When all our other images of God fall away – when we can say that God as a God of power is dead – we may find standing before us the other person.
‘Faith in Jesus Christ,’ writes Thomas JJ Altizer, one of those ‘death of God’ theologians, ‘demands a response to a Word that is present in the life of every human hand and face’.
Following these theologians, we can, in this situation, wait and pray, and prayerfully attend to the mending of wounds. In this way we may discover, after the death of God, a God of peace. Despite his apparent failure on the cross, Christ in his dying is vindicated in our loving.
When one accepts the death of a God of power, the faith that follows may not allow for the kind of metaphysics that Derek Guiton desired. It is, as Graham Shaw described, a vulnerable faith – a faith in which we are responsible for our God and for each other. I think that we could do worse as a Religious Society of Friends than to bear witness to the possibility of a vulnerable faith, to a faith that is neither theist nor nontheist. To do so would be to bear witness to the possibility of a different kind of religion, and a God of peace.
In his Freeing the Faith, the liberal Anglican priest Hugh Dawes writes that ‘God is apparent, we can say with conviction, wherever the creative power of love, compassion, truth, moral goodness and beauty is evident in human lives and in the world. And this is the authentic omnipotence of God.’
Perhaps it is the authentic omnipotence of a God of peace – beyond theism and non-theism – that we may find after the death of a God of power, of all gods of power. And perhaps we can speak here of resurrection. Our faith may be vulnerable, but this vulnerability is the vulnerability of love.
Michael meets for worship with the Friends of the Light. He would like to thank Jonathan Wooding of Totnes Meeting for reading and commenting.
Comments
I find this helpful. Thank you. Donald Thomas, Nairobi
By Kenya Quaker on 7th July 2022 - 15:35
I don’t think God has died for Quaker meetings ,as you report. That’s not my experience .
By Neil M on 26th July 2022 - 18:06
Also , I am not quite convinced that Atheism is at the heart of Christinity . That’s a big claim !
By Neil M on 26th July 2022 - 18:09
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