The idea of death of God from the point of view of anthropology

Abstract

The article discusses the idea of God’s death from the point of view of philosophical anthropology. Examining in detail the history of the formation of this concept the author notes that its intellectual cradle are the culture of the Renaissance and the philosophy of the New time, the quintessence of which is the statement of L. Feuerbach that the mystery of theology lies in anthropology. In other words, Feuerbach proclaims God the projection of human subjectivity. The author shows that the well-known thesis of F. Nietzsche "God is dead" is preceded by almost a century of reflection on the idea of the death of God, in particular by German thinkers Jean Paul, Hegel, and Heine. The author notes that in the twentieth century the reduction of the figure of God is characteristic of psychoanalysis, existentialism, philosophy of postmodernism, philosophy of sacred. The author notes two trends in the interpretation of the figure of the God in modern thought – utilitarianism and the philosophy of the so-called theological turn. According to the author, these trends are not different in a fundamental attitude, but in the degree of sincerity in disclosing their position. Advocates of utilitarianism openly impose their atheistic premises; the advocates of philosophy of the theological turn are trying to obscure the desire to reduce the absolute transcendent God.

In the key section, the author examines the main modern interpretations of the idea of death of God. She identifies eight of such interpretations: 1. The death of God as the death of metaphysics; 2. The death of God as the death of meaning; 3. The death of God as the birth of the Autonomous body. 4. The death of God as the atheism of God; 5. The death of God as the total embodiment; 6. The death of God as the death of teleology; 7. The death of God as immanentism; 8. The death of God as the death of a man. Examining each of these interpretations separately, the author shows the problematic points in their argument. In particular, the identification of the idea of the death of God and the death of metaphysics itself provides the reduction of the figure of God, as metaphysics deals with the term supersensible, leaving out the figure of the concrete living God.

In Nancy’s approach, the death of God marks the birth of the Autonomous body. To the discourse built on binary oppositions "body-soul", "physical-psychic", "transcendental-immanent", "meaning-flesh", "internal-external" and so on, Nancy contrasts the discourse of the Body, that conceals such binarism. The event of the death of God, according to Nancy, means that one configuration of the Body substitutes another configuration of the Body. However, the presented ontology eliminates the idea of man and the idea of God, or "the heavens" with inherent autonomy, as Nancy says. Man, as well as "heaven", is impossible in a world without ontological gaps, in a world of total matter. Autonomy is inherent only in transcendence. Therefore, Nancy’s idea of "God's body" is incompatible with the world of the self-configurating Body.

The interpretation of the words of Christ on the cross "My God, my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46), as well as the interpretation of the death of God as His total incarnation are built on the original ignoring of the idea of absolute God, on the reduction of the Trinity to Christ. Another interpretation of the words of Christ on the cross refers to the idea of suffering, not paid by sense. Christ with the words "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?" addresses to the transcendent God, questioning his teleology. Taking upon himself in his death the suffering and meaninglessness of the world, he becomes a radical response to the otherworldly God of sense. However, the appeal to the meaninglessness of suffering and the comparison of Christ with the Job do not correspond to the Christian idea of suffering. According Christian literature, if Job knew the truth "blessed are those who mourn", he would not wail and would be spiritually elated.

In Russian philosophy, the concept of immanentism represents a denial of transcendent values, and in modern European philosophy, Charles Taylor introduces the notion of "closed world", or "horizontal" world, i.e. the world, that excludes the transcendental and make it unthinkable for its inner structure. Taylor connects the concept of the closed world with the idea of death of God, according to which the ultimate horizon of man is man himself.

The understanding of the idea of the death of God as the realization of philosophy of immanentism reveals its true nature and consequences, the main of which is the idea of the death of man. The figure of the God ontologically provides the possibility of an anthropological phenomenon, that is, autonomous and free presence in the world of subjectivity. God, in his uniqueness, transcendence and absoluteness is the internal bond, which enable the chaos of subjectivity to line up in the order of consciousness. This allows the author to conclude that the mystery of anthropology, contrary to Feuerbach, lies in theology.