The Death of God? Food for Thought

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Harold E. Hatt, “A New Trinity: One God in Three Deaths,” in Religion in Life: A Christian Quarterly of Opinion and Discussion 36 (1967): 67.
Rather than looking to other traditions for inspiration, we need to release the power of our confession that God was in Christ. For example, we need to do away with the notion that religion has nothing to do with business and politics; for however piously religion may pronounce the word “God,” and however unctuously it may affirm its orthodoxy, this idea is the worst form of the affirmation of the death of God. Perhaps some are offended by the death of God because they have felt that God belongs to them by virtue of the fuss they make over him. Therefore, how dare anyone take him away? It is ironic that some of the people who express the most shock that anyone would say God is dead are the very ones who have most insistently and most cold-bloodedly killed God off in some of the basic areas of their lives. To say that God doesn’t belong in certain areas of life is to say that God is dead in those areas, at least.

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