The Death of God and Apophatic Theology

Following up on my previous post, I note that Brandon Ambrosino offers an excellent defense of the theological importance of Nietzsche's "Death of God," and of the idea that maybe what we should give up for Lent is God:

Lent, the period of 40 days leading up to Easter, is meant to prepare our hearts to receive God: to receive God as God, as wholly other, as the Other who is coming, who is always coming, always arriving, always surprising us in the face of the dinner guest who shows up unexpectedly asking if we've remembered to prepare him a seat. And to ready ourselves for this meeting, Christians traditionally give something up: coffee, alcohol, the Internet -- one clever, gluten-free friend of mine mused he was giving up wheat. But the purpose of this giving up is to empty our hearts so that when God arrives -- and God is always arriving -- we are ready for the event. Our "idols," those things in our lives undeserving of worship, must be released from our hands, so that we may hold them open to the startling event that is God's Kingdom Come. ...

Indeed, the God of my rigid ideologies, of my complacent Theology; the God who validates my unwillingness to explore heresies, and rewards me for arrogantly dismissing them as sinful; the God who grounds my intellectual arrogance in His omniscience, and my politics in his omnipotence; the God who vanquishes all of His and my inquisitive foes, forever silencing their obnoxious questions with the fires of Hell; whose very Nature demands that humans separate and categorize the world into manageable divisions; the God who has made His Will known to us through Natural Law, and a Holy Book, every word of which we are to follow without hesitation or consideration; whose ethical character remains beyond discussion; whose decisions remain beyond the scope of human analysis; the God who grounds all Thought in his Being - this God, who is Himself nothing more than an idol of Modernism, is dead.

There's really not much I can add to that, though I am hoping to return with another post on Nietzsche in the coming days, if I can find the time.

Comments

[BrandonAmbro]

Hey Scott!

Thanks for sharing this. Yes, I think Nieztche has some very, very important things to say to all of us -- even (and especially?) Christians. Please let me know when you post your follow up. I'd love to read your thoughts.

Blessings at Lent and always!
Brandon